In President Donald Trump’s second term, his long-simmering war on liberal media has boiled over, with the president’s Federal Communications Commission even threatening broadcast licenses over perceived bias against Republicans. Although this campaign against programs like “The View” and “The Late Show” might prove a salve for conservatives’ feelings of aggrievement, it’s built on legally shaky ground, and could come to haunt the vast array of conservative broadcasts across the country.
This week, ABC’s morning talk show, “The View,” has once again been thrust into the spotlight because of the FCC’s ongoing battle with the media, which is based on a little-known policy called the “equal time rule,” a 1930s era broadcaster regulation that requires programs to give equivalent time to a candidate’s opponent if they permit a candidate for elected office to appear on their broadcast. If John F. Kennedy gets to speak for two minutes, then Richard Nixon gets to speak for two minutes.
