Two government regulatory agencies are now using their oversight power to investigate what they believe are left-leaning news outlets and television shows. It’s part of a growing pattern of President Donald Trump using these agencies to punish perceived enemies in ways starkly different from past presidents.
The investigations — one by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the other by the Federal Trade Commission — target the talk show “The View” on ABC and Apple News, a news aggregation app pre-installed on iPhones and other Apple devices.
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An expert interviewed by Straight Arrow News described the inquiries as troubling intrusions into constitutionally protected activities.
“The mere threat of an investigation is likely enough to chill speech, whether it’s on ‘The View’ or whether it’s on Apple News, you don’t even have to begin a formal investigation or procedure,” Clay Calvert, nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank based in Washington, told SAN. “These are simply warning shots, and at this stage, everybody knows that an investigation could follow.”
FCC investigation
The FCC’s probe into “The View” reportedly began after the hosts interviewed James Talarico, a Democrat who is running for the U.S. Senate from Texas.
The agency believes “The View” may have broken equal time rules, which require broadcast stations to provide the same amount of airtime to all political candidates running for office.
The investigation comes weeks after the FCC changed its rules on equal time, removing an exemption for many late-night and daytime talk shows. Since 2006, those shows could interview only one candidate in a race because of the news value of the conversation.
The rule change from January “limits severely what constitutes a bona fide news interview,” Calvert said.
These changes impact shows like “The View.”
“What it would mean is that if ‘The View’ interviews a liberal candidate, then it’s going to have to provide the opportunity for a conservative candidate to go on that program,” Calvert said. “Obviously that’s going to interfere with the editorial control and discretion of a program like ‘The View.’”
Last year, FCC Chair Brendan Carr had suggested investigating “The View” after he publicly pressured ABC to remove late-night host Jimmy Kimmel from the air over comments he made about the accused killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. ABC suspended Kimmel for several days before reinstating him.
Carr spoke about the possibility of investigating “The View” months before the change in the equal time rule.
“I think it’s worthwhile to have the FCC look into whether ‘The View,’ and some of these other programs that you have, still qualify as bona fide news programs and therefore are exempt from the equal opportunity regime that Congress has put in place,” he said in a podcast interview.
If ABC is found to have violated the equal time rule, the FCC could fine its affiliates or suspend their broadcast licenses. But Calvert noted that the possibility of an investigation was enough for ABC to suspend Kimmel.
“The mere threat of some kind of investigation is enough at this stage to make programmers, including ABC, wary of pushing the limits with the FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr,” Calvert said. “Carr has shown a willingness to leverage the FCC rules in ways that benefit President Trump.”
Under the new equal time rules announced in January, “The View” may have to take this investigation threat seriously and change its editorial policies.
“They would simply say, well, rather than putting on any candidate, we’re not going to put on any candidate,” Calvert said. “Rather than putting on one candidate and being forced to put on another, we’re not going to put on any candidate at all, because we don’t want to be subject to this.”
FTC investigation
Carr’s threatened probe of “The View” came just days before FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson raised concerns that Apple is censoring conservative content on the Apple News app.
In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Ferguson suggested the company may be guilty of unfair or deceptive trade practices because Apple News often features articles from left-leaning publications. (AllSides, a media rating company, says Apple News leans left.)
Ferguson acknowledged that tech companies like Apple enjoy constitutional protections, but he said the First Amendment “never extended its protections to material misrepresentations made to consumers.”
Apple has not responded to the letter.
But is the FTC trying to censor Apple News by claiming it is delivering a product that’s not what it’s promoted to be?
“It is highly problematic now that we have another federal agency beyond the Federal Communications Commission, which essentially is intervening in the marketplace of ideas to adjust it in a manner that would be pro-Trump,” Calvert said.
Agency changes
Both the FCC and FTC are supposed to be nonpartisan independent organizations.
“Brendan Carr has made it clear that the FCC is no longer an independent agency in his mind,” Calvert said. “He perceives his role as simply being an extension of President Trump.”
These latest potential investigations are examples of that.
“In each case, if you’re looking at this, what’s the tool that the federal agency has to leverage against content that President Trump may not like,” Calvert said.
That’s a far cry from the way the Republican Party has operated in the past. Even Trump has pushed a pro-business agenda, but not in this case.
“Republicans used to be pro-business,” Calvert said. “Let businesses operate as they are, and we will not interfere with their business decisions and choices. Somehow, that has changed dramatically, where now if the businesses in question conveys ideas to the public and speech to the public, then that laissez-faire, we grant deference to the business, has changed.”
