Washington DC - ABC recently stepped up to defend The View, as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been pressuring the hit talk show to give more airtime to conservatives.

In a regulatory filing submitted to the FCC on Monday, ABC argued that the show should qualify as a "bona fide news program," which would make it exempt from the commission's rule requiring equal airtime to political candidates on broadcast TV.

"The First Amendment does not permit the government to sit in an editor's chair. Yet that is the seat the Commission now proposes to take – deciding which broadcast programs qualify as legitimate news and, for those it finds wanting, compelling them to surrender their airtime to guests they never chose to feature," the company argues.

The filing comes as President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded that the show, which is regularly critical of him, be canceled.

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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr – who has previously championed himself as a "warrior for free speech" – has targeted the show specifically, accusing it of being "motivated by partisan purposes" and demanding it give "equal time" to Republican politicians.

The equal time rule for political candidates is part of Section 315(a) of the Communications Act of 1934, but in recent decades it has been widely ignored, until now.

In an X post, Carr argued that despite ABC's arguments, "under the law, ABC should focus on complying with its public interest obligations, rather than misleading the public about them."

Back in May, Anna Gomez – the lone Democrat on the commission – urged Disney, the parent company of ABC, to fight back against the "sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control."

In an X post shared on Tuesday, Gomez praised the recent filing, noting, "You don't have to like their coverage to see the danger here."

"Handing government the power to decide what's newsworthy and which guests to feature is a threat to press freedom, no matter which party is in charge," she added.