Groups Address Legacy of Jim Crow in FCC Broadcast Licensing
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 11/7/2005
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has failed to meet its obligations regarding diversity in media ownership, according to public interest advocates participating in a panel discussion in the U.S. Capitol sponsored by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF).Through a "hard won national consensus," Congress determined a set of goals to address the great disparity in federal broadcast licenses awarded to women and minorities, said Mark Lloyd, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a member of the LCCREF board.
Lloyd called these "a set of goals as yet unmet, a promise unfulfilled, a charge ignored by the leaders of the current FCC."
While Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans make up fully one third of America's population, in 2000, they were licensed to only about 4 per cent of the nation's commercial radio stations and less than 2 per cent of the nation's commercial television stations.
Lloyd said that minority ownership of broadcast stations has fallen by 14 per cent since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
In addition to more rigorous oversight of the FCC to address disparities in broadcast licensing, panels said there were other actions Congress should take, such as reinstating the Tax Certificate Policy, which would provide minorities and women with ownership opportunities.
LCCREF released a report at the forum with these and other policy recommendations. "Attacks on policies promoting the inclusion of women and minorities in these areas have and will continue to limit the advancement of viewpoints and interests of under-represented communities, unless and until these attacks are stifled," the report warned.
Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president and CEO of Media Access Project and an author of the report, joined Lloyd on the panel, along with David Honig, Executive Director, Minority Media and Telecommunications Council; Katherine Grincewich, Associate General Counsel, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; and Celia Viggo Wexler, Vice President for Advocacy, Common Cause.
