FCC Letter on Media Ownership

Recipient: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski

Dear Chairman Genachowski:

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States, we write to urge the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider the decision, reported in the press, to permit additional consolidation of the broadcast media without the courtordered data analyzing the impact of media consolidation on communities of color and women.

Media diversity has long been a top priority of The Leadership Conference and our members, who understand that meaningful protection of civil rights and advancement of key policy objectives rely in great measure on an accurate, independent, and diverse media that serves our constituencies. A commitment to promote diverse media owners is a fundamental component of our nation’s communications policy. As we have previously stated to the Commission, any change in media ownership rules should take place only after the Commission collects, releases, and subjects to public comment complete data and analysis of broadcast ownership data. It is a grave disservice to the constituencies represented by The Leadership Conference to attempt to push through a change in media ownership rules at the last minute without an opportunity for our members to sift through the data and engage in substantive debate about its import. A decision to alter any of the Commission’s media ownership rules without this data will violate the mandate of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Third Circuit because it is impossible to understand any change on ownership by women and people of color in its absence.

Please contact Leadership Conference Media/Telecommunications Task Force Co-Chairs Cheryl Leanza, UCC Office of Communication, Inc., at 202-841-6033, Chris Calabrese, ACLU, at 202-715-0839, or Corrine Yu, Leadership Conference Managing Policy Director, at 202-466-5670, if you would like to discuss the above issues or any other issues of importance to The Leadership Conference.

Sincerely,

Wade Henderson
President & CEO

Nancy Zirkin
Executive Vice President