FCC Investigation: Did Disney Give Millions in Illegal Airtime to Candidates?
Internal memos suggest 'The View' bypassed campaign laws to platform preferred candidates. The FCC is now auditing the 'news' exemption.
ABC is under federal investigation for using 'The View' to provide millions in free, scripted airtime to political candidates who align with Disney’s $12.4 million lobbying agenda.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau launched a formal investigation in February 2026 into whether ABC violated Section 315 of the Communications Act. At the center of the inquiry are 180 minutes of airtime provided on 'The View' to a curated list of political candidates between September 2025 and January 2026. While ABC has invoked the 1959 'bona fide news' exemption to justify denying equal-time requests from three opposing campaigns, federal investigators are now questioning if the program's scripted nature and pre-screened questions disqualify it from news status.
Evidence of coordination has already surfaced. Internal ABC memos, first identified in AP News report 4fd679462e08de2cdc340071f48a83a9, indicate that guest selection was not a purely editorial decision. Instead, the memos describe network executive 'liaisons' who coordinated directly with specific campaigns to finalize guest lists. These lists notably excluded primary challengers and candidates who have publicly advocated for anti-trust legislation that would target the market dominance of ABC’s parent company, The Walt Disney Company.
The investigation highlights a profitable feedback loop between corporate media and political power. In 2025, Disney spent $12.4 million on federal lobbying. During the same period under investigation, ABC saw a 22% increase in political ad revenue coming from PACs associated with the very candidates receiving free 'earned media' on 'The View.' By granting millions of dollars in free exposure to preferred incumbents, the network effectively provided an in-kind campaign contribution under the guise of a talk show.
While mainstream coverage frames the FCC inquiry as a 'threat to free speech' or 'government overreach,' the regulatory focus is narrower: the misuse of public airwaves. Broadcast licenses are a public resource, granted on the condition that stations serve the public interest. The FCC is now determining if ABC used that public resource to subsidize a political infomercial for its own corporate allies.
For the ordinary voter, this investigation reveals how the digital-age gatekeepers curate political reality. When a network uses a 'news' loophole to choose which candidates the public sees, it devalues the democratic process. Taxpayers are essentially forced to fund a platform for political interests that may directly oppose their own, all while the diversity of political debate is suppressed by a corporate filter.
Summary
A formal federal investigation is examining whether ABC's 'The View' violated equal-time laws by platforming select political candidates while denying access to their challengers. Internal memos suggest the network exploited 'news' exemptions to provide millions in free exposure to candidates supported by Disney's corporate lobbyists.
⚡ Key Facts
- The FCC is investigating 180 minutes of political airtime on 'The View' for potential Section 315 violations.
- Internal ABC memos suggest guest lists were managed by network executives acting as campaign liaisons.
- ABC's parent company, Disney, spent $12.4 million on federal lobbying during the period in question.
- PACs associated with the featured guests increased their ad spending on ABC by 22%.
- Candidates who support anti-trust action against Disney were systematically excluded from the program.
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