During a segment on FBI Director Kash Patel's confirmation hearing, The View co-host Joy Behar floated the idea that President Trump has had sex with animals. On national television. On a Tuesday afternoon.
This is the same program that ABC's own lawyers have defended in court as a "bona fide news" show — a legal classification that grants press protections under FCC guidelines.
The segment began with a discussion of the SF86 — the federal background investigation form used for security clearances. Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, had raised the form's question about bestiality during Patel's hearing, and The View's panel decided this was really about one person. Behar made the connection explicit: "Okay, this is all about Trump in my opinion right now. This has never — during the Lincoln administration and I was there, this did not happen."
Co-host Sunny Hostin added fuel. "When they're investigating your background, sometimes these things come up and it's usually a disqualifier," she said, implying the question's existence on the SF86 somehow constituted evidence against the sitting president.
Behar followed up with what she apparently considered wit: "What is going on?! Unless you bought a zoo, I don't see the point."
No one on the panel pushed back. Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, the designated conservative voice on The View, didn't challenge the premise. The suggestion that a sitting president engages in bestiality just sat there, uncorrected, on what ABC's legal department classifies as news programming.
ABC and its parent company Disney have invoked the "bona fide news" classification to shield The View from regulatory complaints and defamation exposure. The classification isn't just branding — it carries legal weight, offering the show protections typically reserved for actual journalism. When it suits ABC's lawyers, The View is a news program with editorial standards. When the cameras are rolling, it's apparently a platform for accusing the President of the United States of having sex with animals based on the existence of a standard government form.
The SF86 has included questions about criminal conduct — including bestiality, which remains illegal in many states — for decades. It's a standard background check question asked of every federal employee and contractor who handles classified material. It has nothing to do with any specific individual. Every FBI director nominee goes through this process. The question predates Trump's political career by years.
But context doesn't generate clips. And The View has never been in the context business, despite what ABC's attorneys tell judges. As NewsBusters associate editor Nicholas Fondacaro reported, the Media Research Center has documented the show's pattern of using its "news" designation as a legal shield while operating as something entirely different on air.
ABC could drop the "bona fide news" designation tomorrow. The show would lose some legal protections but gain something closer to honesty. Or ABC could keep the classification and hold the show to the editorial standards the label implies.
They won't do either. The designation stays because it's useful in court, and the content stays because it's useful for ratings. One show, two standards, depending on which room ABC is standing in.