Justin's Entertainment Corner

Jeremy Barr at The Guardian:

The television network ABC is seeking the public’s backing as it faces simultaneous investigations from the Brendan Carr-led Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The media regulator has two pending inquiries into ABC – one focuses on the daytime talkshow The View, and the other is a broader challenge into whether the network should be able to renew licenses for the eight local television stations it owns. The investigation into whether The View has violated a rule requiring equal time for political candidates is accepting public comments until 22 June, while the commission is accepting petitions to deny ABC’s licenses until 29 June.

Ads encouraging the public to voice support for the network to the FCC will begin airing on Monday during commercial breaks on The View, the network said. Targeted advertisements focused on the license renewal will also be shown in the eight local markets that have ABC-owned stations, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The ads, which will air on The View until 6 July, will also be published online. The network decided to air the campaign as a way to ensure that the public is aware of the investigations, which are convoluted and have no clear time horizon. Some of ABC’s licenses were not scheduled to expire until 2031, and critics of Carr’s conduct suggest that it is “open season” on the network, which is regularly criticized by Donald Trump and has previously settled a lawsuit he filed against it for $16m.

Ed Mazza at HuffPost:

One of Stephen Colbert’s final bits as host of “The Late Show” was a prank that’s now costing CBS a little cash, with the money going to a good cause. In his “Meanwhile” segment during the May 21 finale, Colbert noted that the owners of the iconic “Linus And Lucy” song from the Charlie Brown TV specials had filed four lawsuits over the unauthorized use of the tune. “Anyone illegally using that music is gonna have to pay through the nose,” Colbert said. As he spoke, Louis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine ― the “Late Show” house band ― began playing the song. “Is the band right now playing the same ‘Peanuts’ music that I just said people were being sued for, for using without permission?” Colbert asked. “Yeah,” Cato confirmed. “That’s what we’re [doing] right now.” “Oh no. I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money,” Colbert deadpanned. The audience erupted in laughter.

Lillian Rizzo at CNBC:

Fox Corp. has reached an agreement to acquire Roku for roughly $22 billion, marking another chapter in media consolidation as the industry grapples with changing dynamics and mounting challenges. On Monday Fox announced it would acquire Roku for $160 per share in a cash-and-stock transaction. Fox plans to fund the cash portion of the deal with a combination of cash on hand and new debt. The company said it obtained a $12 billion loan for the transaction. Fox’s stock was down 17% in morning trading Monday. Roku fell 2%, though that stock gained 20% on Friday around initial reports of a potential sale. The combination will bring together Fox’s news and sports channels as well as its free ad-supported streamer Tubi with Roku, the maker of streaming devices and also the home of The Roku Channel, a service similar to Tubi.

[...] Murdoch said on Monday’s call with investors that the companies intend to keep Tubi and The Roku Channel separate after the deal closes. He called them “incredibly complementary services” that see about a third of overlap between their audiences.

Ardent Israel Apartheid cheerleader Jerry Seinfeld asked to say Free Palestine, says ‘it doesn’t exist’

Ashley N. Soriano at NewsNation:

(NewsNation) — Comedian Jerry Seinfeld was asked to say “Free Palestine” after the NBA Finals game in New York City Wednesday night, to which he commented, “It doesn’t exist.” The 72-year-old was videotaped walking outside following the New York Knicks’ historic comeback in Game 4 against the San Antonio Spurs when an anti-Israel streamer known as FinesseFave approached him. “What up, Seinfeld, what up? Can we get a ‘Free Palestine?'” he asked, with a mic and camera in hand. After a second time, Seinfeld responded by laughing and discrediting its existence before walking off. This is not the Jewish comedian’s first foray into the subject, where he’s allowed his politics to become public. He previously said, “I don’t care about Palestine,” in a video posted to social media.

When being asked to say “Free Palestine” by influencer FinesseFave, the ardently pro-Israel Apartheid “comedian” Jerry Seinfeld responded with anti-Palestinian bigotry suggesting that Palestine doesn’t exist.

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Molly Sprayregen at LGBTQ Nation:

On June 1, the official Sesame Street social media account posted a simple message of acceptance for LGBTQ+ people to honor the start of Pride Month. “Happy #PrideMonth from Sesame Street!” it read. “Join us in celebrating and uplifting the LGBTQIA+ members of our community.” The text was accompanied by a close-up photo of the colorful characters’ fur, striped to make a rainbow. As is par for the course on social media these days for any company that supports the LGBTQ+ community, conservatives are up in arms, claiming the post is akin to sexualizing children. The outrage has come from a variety of popular right-wing social media accounts, including Libs of TikTok, Turning Point USA, and Gays Against Groomers, the latter of which declared, “PRIDE IS NOT FOR KIDS.”

Libs of TikTok – which has been accused of stochastic terrorism for spreading anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda about schools and teachers – was so enraged about Sesame Street’s message that it posted twice – once in the replies and once as a repost. [...] Sesame Street has long supported LGBTQ+ people and has a history of celebrating Pride Month. The show has also prioritized LGBTQ+ inclusion over the past few decades, featuring a smattering of out celebrity guests and introducing a married gay couple with a daughter in 2021. Conservatives often feel triggered by Sesame Street over its progressive values. In 2021, the official Twitter account for the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) posted a graphic that showed Ernie, Bert, and Big Bird with a big red “X” next to their images and the words “NOT INVITED.”

Paul Waldman at Public Notice:

It was going to be so beautiful: A spectacular concert to celebrate 250 years of freedom and democracy, featuring some of the greatest musical acts this nation has produced. Okay, maybe not the greatest, but they were definitely musical acts! Depending on whether you count Milli Vanilli, or more accurately, one of the two guys who pretended to sing in Milli Vanilli. Along with a guy who was in C+C Music Factory. And Bret Michaels of Poison. For anyone itching to stand outside in the baking Washington summer sun to hear some guys in their 60s wheeze their way through “Girl You Know It’s True” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” the disappointment must be crushing. It now appears that this concert, part of the Freedom 250 celebration and the most awe-inspiring assemblage of talent since your local middle school’s last Battle of the Bands, will not be taking place after all. One after another, the 1990s-era performers pulled out, many saying that when they booked the event they didn’t know it was going to be political.

In other words, once they realized the event was all about Donald Trump, most of them wanted nothing to do with it. Despite the fact that Vanilla Ice was still planning to perform, Trump announced on Saturday that he was pulling the plug, and would instead make the event just another Trump rally. The president then had an epic crashout over the imploded concert, posting later Saturday that “we should have a giant MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY, for 250, instead of having overpriced singers who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain. Cancel it.” (Why Trump would have wanted to book such “boring” musical acts in the first place remains unclear.) So Trump’s long-held dream to take over American culture in the same way he took over American politics remains unfulfilled. For all the ways he has affected the country, he is not a tastemaker or an avatar of coolness; when the culture speaks of Trump, it’s mostly to rail at him and reject him. But this is not a fight he and his supporters will give up easily.

[...]

Again and again, Trump’s success in pushing himself in front of America’s eyeballs either flamed out in failure or was greeted with as much contempt as praise. His efforts to expand his business beyond real estate often crashed and burned — the Trump Shuttle, the USFL football league, the casinos he bankrupted — and even when he succeeded, the reviews were terrible. “The Apprentice” made him millions, but it was also widely derided as trash, and he knew it. Everyone in New York knew him, but they knew him as a figure of comedy and scorn, the “short-fingered vulgarian” (in Spy magazine’s memorable phrase) yearning for a cultural acceptance he could never buy. It’s not just that he has terrible taste, though of course he does. It’s unclear how many people are splashing their own homes in hideous gold-painted appliqués to mimic his Russian-gangster-meets-Saddam-Hussein aesthetic, but there can’t be all that many. Trump’s musical tastes run from show tunes to perfectly adequate pop numbers to one particular ‘70s song about gay men cruising for sex — but the last thing you’d call him is cool.

This is the problem Trump faces: He wants validation and support from the culture in all its forms. He wants to be embraced by the lowbrow and the highbrow, rock stars and athletes, but also by elite cultural institutions — and when he can’t get it, he lashes out. That’s why he slapped his name on the Kennedy Center, as though he could absorb its high-culture cachet; instead, the very fact that his name is now nailed to the building’s facade has defiled it, and its reputation will take a long time to recover. And Trump finds that when he tries to lure artists to him using the capital and the White House as bait, more often than not they recoil in disgust. He’ll always have Kid Rock, though. That’s who will stay by his side: the third-rate, the washed-up, the one-hit-wonders and laughingstocks. And not even most of them.

[...]

The culture war goes on

Complaining about pop culture has been a conservative pastime pretty much forever; one of the things that defines one as a conservative is a distaste for how things are now and a desire to return things to how they used to be. Music, TV, movies, video games, the internet — it’s all too liberal, too modern, too young, too diverse, too messily American for their taste. And they know that screeching about the latest “woke” outrage, no matter how contrived, is good for ratings and good for their politics, which depend on keeping the base in a state of perpetual agitation. But they’re not wrong when they say the culture is dominated by liberals. That’s just how artists are; right-wing art usually has to be imposed from above. But there is a market for right-wing culture. So in response to liberal dominance of Hollywood, conservatives have invested time and money in building their own alternative culture, with some success.

Hemant Mehta at Friendly Atheist:

About a month ago, when the White House’s ridiculously named “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias” released its final report summarizing all the ways Christians are persecuted in America, I wrote about how the whole thing was a joke because there were no serious examples of persecution in it. But in case you didn’t read that article, don’t worry! Christian Nationalists are already releasing a documentary based on the report’s findings. It’s called “By Dawn’s Early Light” and it’s yet another attempt to link the founding of the country to the fictional attacks on Christianity today.

[...] If there were serious examples of government bias against Christians, they might have had a compelling movie. But because that’s not a real problem in our society, they don’t. It’s the same reason Christian “victories” in the Supreme Court tend to involve situations like a baker having to sell a cake for a same-sex wedding or a public high school coach demanding a special right to pray in the middle of a football field where everyone can see him because it won’t count if he prays silently or privately. Imagine watching a documentary about how tough it is to be a white male in America, and you probably have a sense of what this move will be. There are people who are systemically, repeatedly, and currently persecuted by the government. They’re not the white guys and they’re not Christians. But some Catholic students were told by a couple of misguided cops not to wear their anti-abortion hats at a federal museum this one time... so it’s the same thing, really.

[...]

Christians in America aren’t going to jail because of their beliefs. They aren’t banned from seeking public office. They dominate Congress, the Supreme Court, state legislatures, local governments, and virtually every major institution of political power. Christians have it so damn good that Trump literally created a federal task force devoted exclusively to protecting the Christian majority from the tyranny of not getting every single thing they ever want (something no genuinely oppressed group would ever receive from the most powerful government on Earth). And yet these people still want audiences to believe Christians need to huddle together as part of some underground resistance movement because some museum guard made rude comments one day. There’s a reason movies like this keep getting made. It’s not because Christians are persecuted, but rather because Christian Nationalism requires a permanent sense of victimhood. If you can convince ignorant people they’re always under attack, that makes it much easier to dominate public life. Taking over school boards isn’t an act of aggression; it’s necessary defense against Christian persecution! Posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms isn’t about pushing faith on others; it’s reminding the country about our religious origins! They’re going to keep pretending Christians are victims of persecution until they’ve erased church-state separation entirely.

Hemant Mehta at Friendly Atheist:

If you were into Christian music about three decades ago, you wouldn’t have been able to escape Avalon. The band, co-founded by Michael Passons, earned multiple gold records, Grammy nominations, and a long string of #1 hits on the Christian charts. Their most famous song was “Testify to Love,” which includes lines like “With every breath I take, I will give thanks to God above. For as long as I shall live, I will testify to love.” A reader who grew up in evangelical culture told me, “you could summon this whole generation with this one song.” But as anyone who’s ever had to deal with white evangelicals can tell you, love is always conditional in that environment. In 2003, around the height of their fame in the Christian world, Passons announced he was leaving the band to pursue a solo career… which made some sense. The band continued with different members. Yet Passons never released any kind of solo album. In 2020, we learned why. He didn’t actually leave the band of his own volition at all. He was kicked out of it for being gay.

[“Avalon showed up at my house and told me I was no longer in the group,” he said. “And it was all because of who I am.” “They came alone, but they had been speaking with management and record label before they visited my home,” Passons continued, adding that he was “blindsided” by the decision.]

They attempted to salvage their working relationship by having Passons attend “conversion therapy” sessions, and he went along with it for about a month. But he knew he wasn’t going to magically turn straight and said as much. So the band moved on without him. When Passons finally went public with all of this, 17 years after his ousting, he had finally come to terms with his sexual orientation and knew it was nothing to be ashamed about. But that was the culmination of a long journey. In fact, he only came out to his family earlier that year (in 2020).

The reason this story matters now is because Passons, former Avalon member Melissa Greene (whose tenure briefly overlapped with Passons’), and Country Music singer Ty Herndon have just re-released “Testify to Love” with an official music video on the way. This time, however, they say they’re taking the whole “love” thing seriously, instead of defining it in the Christian-y judgmental way like in the past.

Owen Myers at The Guardian:

Olivia Rodrigo has responded to controversy over a recent babydoll dress she wore while performing on stage in Spain. The singer faced backlash online after she wore a short puffy dress with a floral pattern while performing her recent single Drop Dead at Barcelona’s Teatre Grec on 8 May. She also wears a similar style dress on the cover of her upcoming album. “That’s been making me so upset,” Rodrigo said in an interview with the New York Times’ Popcast.

“What’s really disturbing is I feel like I have worn outfits that are revealing on stage. Like, I’ve been on stage in like a sparkly bra, little shorts, which is my right. That’s fun. I felt cool and comfortable in that. And that wasn’t ‘inappropriate’ – but me fully covered up in a dress that people deem to be childlike was inappropriate. “I think it shows how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture,” the singer added. “And also it’s just this rhetoric that we’re fed as girls since we’re so little, which is like, ‘Don’t wear that because then a man is going to sexualize your body and it’s your fault.’ Like, it’s so weird.” Rodrigo is promoting her forthcoming third album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, out on 12 June. In a review of Drop Dead, the album’s lead single, the Guardian’s Laura Snapes praised its “melody destined to stalk listeners’ brains all summer”

The singer pointed out that the babydoll dress has been an iconic outfit for 90s female punk stars. “I didn’t think I looked sexy in that at all,” Rodrigo said. “I was like, ‘This is so cool. I feel like I look like Kathleen Hanna or Courtney Love,’ all these people who are my heroes.”

Walter Einenkel at Daily Kos:

Stephen Colbert signed off for the last time Thursday night, and it was a beauty. “The Late Show” host opened the show with his traditional monologue, but this time he also addressed the audience at home. Reflecting on his debut nearly 11 years ago, Colbert proclaimed, “Anyone can read the news to you, I promise to feel the news at you.”  “I realized pretty soon in this job that our job over here was different,” he continued. “We were here to feel the news with you. And I don’t know about you, but I sure have felt it!” The finale featured several celebrity appearances, including Tig Notaro, Bryan Cranston, Ryan Reynolds, Elijah Woods, and Paul Rudd. And, of course, the legendary Paul McCartney surprised the audience as Colbert’s much-anticipated last guest.

Ron Dicker at HuffPost:

Bari Weiss, the editor-in-chief at CBS News, apparently wasn’t feeling all the feels of Anderson Cooper’s emotional farewell from “60 Minutes” last week. The correspondent signed off for good after 20 years, nearly crying as he said “I’m Anderson Cooper” for the final time in a “60 Minutes Overtime” segment on YouTube. But he also expressed hope that the venerable news show would uphold its “independence” ― which has been seriously disputed as CBS News leans right under Weiss. That’s what got the new boss “furious” and feeling “blindsided” after she wasn’t given a heads-up on his remarks, people familiar with the matter told Status. “I hope ‘60 Minutes’ remains ‘60 Minutes,’” Cooper said. “There’s very few things that have been around for as long as ‘60 Minutes’ has, and maintain the quality that it has. ... I think the independence of ‘60 Minutes’ has been critical. The trust it has with viewers is critical to the success of ‘60 Minutes.’”

Hey, Bari, screw off and get a life!

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Steven J. Horowitz at Variety:

Rob Base, one-half of Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, who was best known for the hit “It Takes Two,” has died. He was 59. The rapper, who celebrated his 59th birthday just four days ago, died on May 22 while surrounded by family after a private battle with cancer. “Rob’s music, energy, and legacy helped shape a generation and brought joy to millions around the world. Beyond the stage, he was a loving father, family man, friend, and creative force whose impact will never be forgotten,” reads a statement on his social media account. “Thank you for the music, the memories, and the moments that became the soundtrack to our lives.” Alongside E-Z Rock, who died in 2014 from complications of diabetes, Base was instrumental in cross-pollinating hip-hop and house music and bringing them to the mainstream in the 1980s. Their smash “It Takes Two” reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Songs chart in 1988 followed by “Get on the Dance Floor,” which topped the same chart. In the decades since, “It Takes Two” has become a cultural touchstone, sampled by everyone from Snoop Dogg to Black Eyed Peas and used in films including 2009’s “The Proposal” and 2010’s “Iron Man 2.”

Robert Ginyard was born on May 18, 1967, and met E-Z Rock in the fifth grade while growing up in Harlem. They were inspired to form a duo as teenagers after seeing local group the Crash Crew manage to release a record, prompting Base to buy a microphone and E-Z Rock to get a mixer and turntables. After their songs “DJ Interview” and “Make It Hot” picked up local buzz, they crafted the demo of “It Takes Two” in about two nights, which led to a deal with Profile Records. They soon followed with their debut album, 1988’s “It Takes Two,” which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and spawned two more hits: “Get on the Dance Floor” and “Joy and Pain.”

John Russell at LGBTQ Nation (05.14.2026):

Conservative Christian advocacy organization One Million Moms (OMM) is urging its supporters to demand warnings about LGBTQ+ content — and specifically content to do with gender identity — on TV. This week, the anti-LGBTQ+ group posted a message to its supporters telling them to “send a personal comment to the [Federal Communications Commission], letting them know that the TV ratings have failed your family.”

“When LGBTQ content is included in children’s programming without being identified and labeled, then parental rights are being taken away,” OMM claims. “This is a critical moment to advocate for a ratings system that reflects today’s media realities and genuinely respects parental authority.” The call to action comes nearly a month after the FCC, under the leadership of chairman Brendan Carr, issued an April 22 Public Notice seeking public comment on whether the current TV ratings system should be overhauled to include warnings for the “promotion” of “controversial gender identity issues.”

Recently, parents have raised concerns that controversial gender identity issues are being included or promoted in children’s programs without providing any disclosure or transparency to parents,” the notice reads. “Specifically, the industry guidelines that parents rely on are rating shows with transgender and gender nonbinary programming as appropriate for children and young children, and doing so without providing this information to parents, thereby undermining the ability of parents to make informed choices for their families. Consistent with Congress’s vision for the ratings system, we seek comment on whether the industry’s approach is continuing to provide the information that is relevant to parents today.”

Mathew Rodriguez at Them:

With all the problems plaguing the world today, why not take some time to complain about Elliot Page in The Odyssey? That’s exactly what Newsmax anchor Rob Finnerty did on a segment that aired this week on the far-right network. In response to rumors that Page may be playing the mythological hero Achilles in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey, Finnerty used his platform to lambaste the director's too-woke decision in a transphobic rant. After first saying Elliot Page’s full name, Finnerty then refers to the actor by his deadname, going on to say: “The most famous warrior in all of history, not just Greek history, Achilles, is about to be played by a transgender woman in a brand new movie.”

Continuing to use she/her pronouns to refer to Page, Finnerty then reminds viewers that Page starred in the Academy Award-winning film Juno, for which he received an Oscar nomination, as a prelude to even more misgendering remarks. Finnerty then goes on to discuss Achilles further, emphasizing that he is described “throughout history” as a “superhuman warrior” and “deadly on the battlefield.” Though Achilles is mostly known for his lead role in Homer’s The Iliad, he does appear in The Odyssey as a spirit that speaks with Odysseus when he travels to the underworld. [...]

We should emphasize that while Page’s casting in the film is official, with the actor appearing briefly in the recently released trailer, it is not yet confirmed what role he plays — so this entire screed was based on speculation. Following his anti-Page comments, Finnerty then moves on to the fact that a Black woman, Lupito Nyong’o — whose name Finnerty mispronounces — is playing Helen of Troy.

“The woman whose face launched a thousand ships, whose beauty was unparalleled, a woman who was definitely white is going to be played by Lupita Nyong’o,”he said. “I’ve got nothing against Lupita, but I do have a problem with the complete rewriting of history. Helen of Troy was not Black.”

While Finnerty believes this is a rewriting of history, perhaps he is blithely unaware that Helen of Troy was … not a real person … and that Homer’s epic tales The Iliad and The Odyssey are more mythology than biographical history. Hello, it has Greek gods and goddesses milling about!

Despite Helen being a work of fiction, Nyong’o’s casting in the film has ruffled many conservative feathers besides Finnerty’s. Shortly after Nolan confirmed that Nyong’o would be playing Helen, as well as her sister Clytemnestra, right-wing provocateur Matt Walsh tweeted, “Not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world.’” He added, “But Christopher Nolan knows that he would be called racist if he gave “the most beautiful woman” role to a white woman.” Right-wing billionaire Elon Musk responded, “True.”

Right-wingers crying over non-white males playing major roles in films is old as tale as time, with the dust-up over Elliot Page playing Achilles in The Odyssey.

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Kelby Vera at HuffPost:

Rapper Nicki Minaj opened up about her political evolution toward the MAGA movement in a Time magazine feature published Wednesday, in which she revealed the pivotal moment that led her to publicly embrace President Donald Trump. The “Super Bass” artist said she supported Trump long before boosting him on social media in late 2025 or appearing hand in hand with him at a high-profile Washington, D.C., event this January, but feared the backlash that might come with openly endorsing the president.

“I felt that way already about him, just that I didn’t dare act like that publicly,” she explained. “It’s been ingrained in everyone’s brain in the music business that we are supposed to be a Democratic family. I just knew they would not like me supporting Trump.” Minaj said things shifted last April after she was targeted in a swatting hoax, a form of harassment where false emergency reports are used to dispatch police to an unsuspecting victim’s home. Though the “Anaconda” rapper sought help from California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) after similar incidents in 2022 and 2023, she said she was stunned when his office never responded. “He just completely ignored me, with all the money I spent in taxes,” Minaj told Time. While she felt rejected by Newsom, Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.) did reach out to help the rapper after the 2025 swatting incident. “I’d never seen anyone in politics treat me that way,” Minaj recalled. “That’s what made me say that I don’t care to keep this a secret anymore.”

John Hendel at Politico:

Disney’s ABC lambasted the Federal Communications Commission’s newfound efforts to regulate interviews on broadcast talk shows, warning that Chair Brendan Carr’s “unprecedented” actions threaten to “chill” the First Amendment and stifle coverage of political candidates. The regulatory filing marked the latest stage in a confrontation between the broadcasting networks and Carr, who has used his tenure atop the nominally independent FCC to wage a series of fights against perceived foes of President Donald Trump. In this case, the dispute involves Carr’s efforts to wield a decades-old “equal time” rule to demand that broadcast talk shows such as ABC’s “The View” offer equal time to both parties when interviewing political candidates. Such shows had previously relied on the FCC’s exemption for what it calls “bona fide” news interviews — but now, their ability to air those interviews is in doubt, ABC wrote.

“Uncertainty as to the scope of broadcast licensees’ editorial discretion threatens to limit news coverage of political candidates and chill core First Amendment-protected speech for years and potentially decades to come,” ABC wrote in the 52-page petition to the agency, unveiled Friday. “As the 2026 midterm election approaches, the American people need more access to political news and more exposure to political candidates, not less.”

An FCC spokesperson defended Carr’s approach and but told POLITICO that the agency would review ABC’s arguments that “The View” should be exempt from the equal time rules. “Decades ago, Congress passed a law that generally prohibits broadcast television programs from putting a thumb on the scale in favor of one political candidate over another,” said the spokesperson, who was granted anonymity in keeping with commission practice. “Specifically, Congress put protections in place to ensure that covered programs offer legally qualified candidates for office (both Republican and Democrat) equal time on the public airwaves. The equal time law encourages more speech and empowers voters to decide the outcome of elections.”

[...] In its petition, ABC requested that the FCC honor its “bona fide news” exemption for “The View” and warned that the “Commission’s actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to The View and more broadly.”