Upcoming Review of FCC Rules Governing Media Ownership

Recipient: The Honorable Kevin Martin

The Honorable Kevin Martin
Chairman
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554


Dear Chairman Martin:

On behalf of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the nation’s oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition, with more than 190 member organizations, we are writing to urge you to commit resources to study the barriers to participation and ownership by women and minorities in the upcoming review of the Federal Communications Commission’s rules governing media ownership. The civil rights community has long regarded expanding minority and female ownership in media as important goals because of the powerful role the media plays in the democratic process, as well as in shaping perceptions about who we are as individuals and as a nation.

We understand that Senators John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, and Bill Nelson have requested that the Commission complete a consideration of the issues of minority and small business ownership before taking up the wider media ownership issue. LCCR conducted public hearings in 2005 on the importance of diversity in media ownership, and is convinced that the FCC is not doing an adequate job of identifying and working to eliminate the barriers to participation of women and minorities in this important industry. While Latino Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans make up fully one-third of this nation, the most recent study conducted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration shows that a third of a nation was licensed to a mere 4 percent of the nation’s commercial radio stations and 1.9 percent of the nation’s commercial television stations in 2000. A more recent assessment by Free Press demonstrates that these figures have only gotten worse since 1998, with minorities licensed to 3.26 percent of all stations, while women were licensed to only 4.97 percent of all stations. Under Section 257 of the Communications Act, the Commission is required by Congress to address this problem.

While the FCC is addressing diversity in its questions in the FNPRM, the Commission is not being specific enough in its inquiry to generate relevant comments nor is it devoting adequate resources to create a full record on the issue of minority and female ownership. In this regard, we note the failure of the Commission’s Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) to specifically address, as instructed by the Third Circuit, the thirteen proposals for promoting diversity in ownership offered by the Minority Media Telecommunications Council.

We thank you for considering our views, and look forward to your response. If you have any questions, please contact Nancy Zirkin at 202/263-2880 or Corrine Yu, Director of Special Projects, 202/466-5670, regarding this or any issue.

Sincerely,

Wade Henderson, Executive Director
Nancy Zirkin, Deputy Director

Cc: FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps
FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein
FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate
FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell