The Trump administration is running the scoreboard right now, and if you're keeping track at home, the FCC is deep inside ABC's filing cabinets while the Justice Department is fitting James Comey for an indictment over a seashell art post. Two of the left's most sacred institutions — their propaganda network and their sainted FBI chief — getting walloped in the same news cycle. You love to see it.
But wait, I thought questioning the media was a "threat to democracy"? Funny how that works. They spent years weaponizing every three-letter agency against us, and now that the shoe's on the other foot, suddenly everyone's a civil libertarian.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr launched a formal inquiry into ABC's broadcast licenses covering stations in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles — the crown jewels of their network. The whole thing started with a filing related to KTRK, ABC's Houston affiliate, but it's mushroomed into a full-blown examination of whether "The View" has been violating equal-time rules for decades. ABC has already coughed up 11,000 documents in response. Eleven thousand. That's not a network with nothing to hide — that's a network scrambling to explain itself.
Here's where it gets fun. ABC is now arguing in legal filings — with former solicitor general Paul Clement leading the charge — that "the commission's actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech." Translation: we've been getting away with this for so long that holding us accountable now feels unfair.
"The View" received a news exemption back in 2002, five years after Barbara Walters founded the show in 1997. A "news exemption." For a show where Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar spend an hour shrieking about Republicans between yogurt commercials. That's the exemption Carr's team is now poking holes in, and frankly, it's about time somebody did.
The last time the FCC actually revoked a broadcast license was over half a century ago. So the media establishment figured they were untouchable. Brendan Carr apparently didn't get that memo.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Washington, the Trump Justice Department dropped another indictment on former FBI Director James Comey. This one's over the now-infamous seashell art posting — an arrangement spelling out "86 47," which prosecutors argue was a threat against the 47th president. Comey — Mr. "Higher Loyalty" himself — is now lawyering up over arts and crafts.
Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy, writing for National Review, actually thinks the case is a stretch. "Sure, Comey plainly did not intend to threaten bodily harm," McCarthy wrote, adding that "the case must be thrown out pretrial because '86 47' is not a true threat." He may be right on the legal merits. But here's the thing — the same crowd that spent four years prosecuting grandmothers for walking through velvet ropes on January 6th doesn't get to cry about prosecutorial overreach now. You built this machine. You don't get to complain when somebody else drives it.
And let's not forget the backdrop here. ABC and CBS each paid $16 million to settle lawsuits related to their coverage. Pentagon reporters got booted for refusing advance censorship. The administration invited JD Vance, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Elon Musk, Kevin McCarthy, and Marco Rubio onto "The View" — every single one refused. That's not a news show getting snubbed. That's a propaganda outlet being treated like one.
As Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz noted, this represents a new phase in the administration's regulatory posture toward its critics. The FCC isn't just sending strongly worded letters anymore. They're demanding documents. They're questioning exemptions. They're doing the thing that Democrats perfected under Obama and Biden — using the machinery of government to apply pressure — except this time the targets actually deserve it.
Comey spent years leaking classified memos to reporters and orchestrating a surveillance operation against a sitting president. Now he's catching charges over Instagram decor. The irony is so thick you could spread it on toast.
The left had no problem when the IRS targeted Tea Party groups. They cheered when the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago. They applauded when tech companies censored conservative voices at the government's request. But now? Now that ABC's turning over filing cabinets and Comey's getting fitted for a court date? Suddenly the Constitution matters again.
Welcome to the party, folks. We saved you a seat.
