ABC’s ‘The View’ Defiantly Fawns Over Democrat Andy Beshear Despite FCC Warning About Booking Only Democrats

ABC’s “The View” appears to be thumbing its nose at the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, after he warned late-night and daytime talk shows that they are not exempt from the agency’s longstanding equal time rules. On Monday, the ladies of “The View” interviewed Kentucky’s Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, who is seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, without having a Republican on the show. The co-hosts gushed over Mr. Beshear, providing him with an opportunity to introduce himself to a national audience. For its political guests, the stridently left-wing “View,” which is overseen by liberal ABC News, very rarely books Republicans, and in the rare times that it does, the Republicans do not support President Trump. Last month, the show did break with convention to host an ardent conservative, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. But she had just broken with Mr. Trump, recanted many of her more controversial views and said she would not seek reelection.Mr. Beshear’s appearance came weeks after the FCC issued guidance clarifying Section 315 of the Communications Act, which requires that if a broadcast network lets a candidate for office “use its facilities,” it must provide the same amount of airtime to legally filed opposing candidates. New programs are traditionally except, and this “bona fide news” exemption can also apply, in certain cases, to daytime or late night talk shows, allowing them to avoid the equal time rule. In 2006, the exemption was granted to “The Late Show with Jay Leno.” In ensuing years, as “The View” (a daytime show, even though it’s supervised by ABC’s news division) and the late night comedy shows on ABC and CBS began to cover politics heavily, almost universally from a liberal perspective, the FCC remained largely hands-off. (“The Tonight Show” on NBC has traditionally been the least political of the late night talk shows, but “Late Night With Seth Myers,” which airs on NBC after “Tonight,” has become known for far left, anti-Trump advocacy.)But this latest guidance from the Trump FCC – which has been pushing back at entrenched liberal bias at over-the-air broadcast networks, which by law are supposed to provide objective news programming – the FCC questioned whether the 2006 Leno exemption necessarily applied to “similar entertainment programs.“This is not the case,” the agency said. “Importantly, the FCC has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late night or daytime television talk show program on air presently would qualify for the bona fide news exemption.”In the wake of that guidance, “The View” appears to be daring the FCC to take action. Last week, the co-hosts interviewed a Texas Democratic candidate for Senate, James Talarico, without providing the same time to the incumbent Republican senator, John Cornyn, or Mr. Talarico’s primary opponents. That interview triggered an FCC investigation into whether it violated the equal time rule, Fox News reported over the weekend. A source at the FCC told Fox News that ABC has not submitted an equal time filing to the agency, which implies it believes the show does qualify for the “bona fide” news exemption.On Monday, Mr. Beshear called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be fired over the handling of immigration enforcement at Minneapolis. “This organization has to be reformed from the top down, Secretary Noem needs to be fired, and every agent needs to be retrained,” he said, which led to cheering from the audience. “There is a body count of American citizens right now because of the actions of this agency. That should be enough to say we’re going to take a pause, we’re going to pull everybody back, and we’re going to try to get it right.”He also stated that President Trump’s call to nationalize elections should “concern everyone,” and vowed to boycott a dinner at the White House. ABC News reported that Mr. Trump only invited Republican governors for a meeting at the White House, but did invite some Democratic governors to a dinner.“I ain’t going,” Mr. Beshear said. “If he’s not going to invite us to the business section, I’m not going to go to dinner, the social section. You know, my job is to get things done for our people, and so they will be without me.”While Mr. Beshear is not officially a candidate for president, he has said he will “think about” running in 2028.However, the apparent refusal to make adjustments to the guests booked for “The View” — while reportedly facing an FCC investigation — seems to be a defiant response to Mr. Carr’s warnings. The daytime talk show, which features an all-female, anti-Trump panel, has been on Mr. Carr’s radar for months. Last summer, he warned that there could be “consequences” for the show after co-host Joy Behar alleged that Mr. Trump is “so jealous” of President Obama’s marriage to Michelle Obama. Mr. Carr also previously suggested that the show may not qualify for an exemption to the equal time rule. Mr. Carr has repeatedly warned that broadcast networks — which rely on public airwaves to transmit their programming and are thus subject to FCC regulations — that they cannot air “partisan circus[es].” Along with the equal time rule, he has also said that broadcasters need to comply with the “public interest” rule. He told NewsBusters last year that means they must be “looking out for the interest of the local community,” and that many broadcasters have failed to do so by failing to cover “some of the biggest, most important stories of the past five years.”ABC did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

ABC’s ‘The View’ Defiantly Fawns Over Democrat Andy Beshear Despite FCC Warning About Booking Only Democrats

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