Glenn Beck Makes the Case For Why Trump’s FCC Should Leave The View Alone

Screenshot via social media

Glenn Beck, the longtime conservative radio host turned MAGA-era podcaster, offered his frank analysis on the FCC’s battle with ABC over the network’s popular daily talk show The View. Beck said he “despises” the program but laid out the case for both why and how Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr will likely lose this fight.

Beck began the segment by reading from a news article, saying, “Disney’s ABC is firing back at the FCC, accusing the agency of engaging in actions that, quote, threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech.” Beck went on to explain that the FCC is probing whether or not The View should be forced to operate under the equal time political rule and whether or not ABC’s broadcast licenses should be impacted if the program doesn’t adhere to that standard.

After dispensing with the background, Beck offered his take, beginning by noting, “I have done FCC-regulated radio for 49 years. I know the FCC rules and regs better than probably anyone else on the air. I’m not a lawyer, and I’m sure I’m not right on everything, but I know it by gut because I was 13 when I had to take my first FCC call—calling it the third phone license—on what you can and cannot do.”

“Let me go over that first paragraph again: ‘Disney’s ABC firing back at the FCC, accusing the agency of engaging in actions that threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech.’ Okay, decades of law. Yes. Everything changed in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan. It is the reason why the Rush Limbaugh show could come on.” He continued:

Nobody wanted to do political talk back in the day because you had to balance absolutely everything, and it was just too much of a headache, okay? The other way to balance it is if you combined MSNBC and Fox, and every other hour it was a leftist and then somebody on the right, and then a leftist and then the right. Nobody would listen to that. And so radio just did not engage, generally speaking. Local radio just didn’t engage in any of that stuff, okay? The issue involves an FCC investigation.

Now, listen to this: it involves an FCC investigation into whether talk show The View qualifies for an exemption to the agency’s equal time political rule. That’s totally legitimate for the FCC to launch an investigation to see if it fits. What is the rule? The rule is equal time. You have to have—if you’re not a news program—the law stipulates: if you’re a broadcast person (this is not involving anything on cable or on the internet, but on broadcast radio or television), if you’re a news show, you don’t have to have both sides on because it’s news. It’s breaking every day, it’s changing every day. We have a hard enough time booking guests for a subject.

Imagine having to book a guest that has the opposite view of everything you’re just covering. It would stop news from happening. So that’s the rule. ABC claims that The View is a news show. I don’t watch The View. I never have watched The View. I have only watched the clips of The View because, for the love of everything that is good and sacred, little baby Jesus cannot save my soul from darkness if I watch that thing every day, okay? I just couldn’t take it. My head would explode. So I don’t know for sure, but from the clips that I have seen over the years, I would say that’s a news show.

“Is Glenn Beck supporting ABC? No, I’m supporting the truth as I understand it. Now, I could get new facts and change my mind, but as I understand it, and as I understand The View, which I despise, that’s what they do. They see what’s in the news and they talk about it,” Beck continued, highlighting what he sees as the core distinction that the FCC appears to be missing.

“Now, if I have a skewed view of The View because I only watch the clips, and they’re spending 60% of the time talking about—I don’t know—how beautiful Whoopi Goldberg is at the latest movie premiere, well, then that’s not a news show. But if what they talk about most of the time is the news of the day, I would consider that a news show. And here’s why I say that: while I am not a hard news show, I talk about the news every day. That’s what we do. We bring newsmakers on to discuss what is happening in the world. That’s what we do. If I have the balance right—and I could be wrong—that’s why the FCC investigation is the right thing to do. What is the balance?” Beck continued, adding:

It’s my understanding, and ABC could correct me on this, but it is my understanding that Jimmy Kimmel is also considered a news program. I don’t need to have an investigation on that. That’s not a news program. I did one search: how many politicians has Jimmy Kimmel had on his show in the last 60 days? And the answer was one. What is the balance of his show? The balance of his guests are Hollywood, okay?

It’s an entertainment show, not a news show. That one clearly doesn’t qualify. If ABC is defining that one as a news show, which would then stop him from having to have the other side on, that’s wrong. Let me back up and tell you why you’re supposed to have both sides on. It’s not because of news. It is because of one wise decision the government made. Remember, this is only for public airwaves. This is not cable or internet.

Beck concluded by doubling down on his earlier conclusion, arguing, “The FCC is right to investigate the balance and ask: what is this show? If this show, The View, is mainly daily news, ABC should win this battle. Oh, can you hear my soul dying? ABC should win this battle. If it is 60% or more entertainment, ABC should lose this battle. Giving ABC the benefit of the doubt (which I wouldn’t accept as an example in this monologue), from the clips that I’ve seen, that looks like a news show.

Watch the clip above.

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