An attorney for ABC parent company Disney said the network censored The View’s “Hot Topics” political segment amid threats from the Trump administration.
The admission came Tuesday, when a federal judge heard arguments in ABC’s First Amendment lawsuit against the Trump administration’s FCC. Beth Wilkinson, an attorney for Disney, told the court that ABC has neutered The View’s politics-heavy segment, “Hot Topics.”
The View chose to “forgo clips of political candidates on its ‘Hot Topics’ segment this cycle, out of concern it will invoke FCC scrutiny because of the equal time rule,” Wilkinson said, according to Deadline.
The Daily Beast has reached out to The View for comment.
The FCC began investigating the series and alleged that it didn’t follow the “equal time rule,” which demands equivalent airtime for both Democrat and Republican candidates, after the show hosted Texas Democratic candidate James Talarico in February.
Talarico is running for a Texas U.S. Senate seat against Trump-backed Republican incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton—whose strong support in the traditionally deep-red state has made him a Trump nemesis.
ABC argued that The View falls under the “bona fide news interview program” exemption for news programming.
Wilkinson also said the network made more concessions to avoid Trump’s wrath elsewhere, like when ABC streamed Trump’s July speech on ABC News Live after skipping it on television, “because they thought the president would be angry” if they didn’t air it all. (Trump ultimately lashed out at the network anyway.)
“We are watching everything we do,” Wilkinson said, as going against Trump “brings out anger in the administration and retaliation from the agency.” Losing its broadcast licenses would essentially be the “death penalty” for ABC’s stations, Wilkinson argued.
Disney sued the FCC after its chair, Brendan Carr, ordered an early license renewal review for eight local television stations owned by ABC in major markets. The move hadn’t been made in over 50 years, according to Reuters, and ABC argues that it’s just a ploy to curb criticism of the president on television.
The FCC argued that the early renewal stemmed from its investigation into Disney’s DEI policies, when it moved to dismiss ABC’s lawsuit.
ABC also airs Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where the host calls out the president nightly, despite Trump’s repeated calls for his firing. While ABC has occasionally appeared defiant against the administration, top brass expressed doubts about Kimmel’s future on the network, even as his ratings steadily increase.
