What Happened
The FCC's Media Bureau released a public notice seeking comment on a petition from Disney's ABC over The View. ABC wants the FCC to declare that the show qualifies as a bona fide news interview program and is therefore exempt from statutory equal-opportunities requirements.
The notice, released May 22, lists docket 26-124, comment deadline June 22 and reply deadline July 6. That turns a fight over a daytime talk show into a formal federal comment process, complete with dates, docket numbers and the full paperwork cologne of Washington.
This follows earlier reporting and filings over whether appearances and political discussion on The View could trigger equal-time obligations for broadcasters.
Why This Matters
Equal-opportunities rules exist to stop broadcasters from turning candidate airtime into a free campaign gift. The exemption for bona fide news interviews exists because journalism and public-affairs programming cannot work if every candidate mention becomes a regulatory mousetrap.
The policy question is real. The optics are also real. When the federal broadcast regulator is formally asking the public whether a loud political daytime show counts as a news interview program, it starts to look less like neutral rule administration and more like Washington discovered a comments section with legal consequences.
The Dumb Part With The Daytime TV Tribunal
The dumb part is the spectacle of making The View pass through a regulatory identity scanner. Is it news? Is it interviews? Is it five people arguing over hot topics before a commercial break? Congratulations, America: the answer may now involve docket 26-124.
No one should have to love the show to see the problem. If every politically inconvenient broadcast has to prove its category papers to stay clear of campaign-time rules, the line between regulation and pressure starts getting very smudgy.
The Bottom Line
The FCC is taking comments and reply comments on ABC's petition. The real stupid shit is that daytime TV has become a federal paperwork exhibit in the endless effort to make media grievance look like administrative law.
Sources
FCC: Media Bureau seeks comment on petition by Disney's ABC regarding The View