Call to Action on Female/Minority Ownership Panel

In a guest post, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein calls on the FCC and Chairman Martin to establish a task force to study the impact of media consolidation on female and minority ownership. Join the conversation in the comments section below. Commissioner Adelstein will be available in a few weeks at the Free Press Action Network to respond to your comments and answer you questions. You can also join Commissioner Adelstein in calling for an independent task force on minority media ownership. Submit your comments to the FCC today.

Last week, the FCC hosted an historic public hearing on media ownership at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition National Headquarters in Chicago, IL. There is no better place to address the issue of media ownership, particularly for women and minorities, than Chicago. Roughly two-thirds of the people in the city are black and Hispanic, and over half are women. But collectively, they own just six percent of all TV and radio stations in the Chicago media market. It is outrageous that Chicago, with all its diversity, has the lowest proportion of minority radio ownership of the nation’s 22 largest markets.

With this much diversity among the people of Chicago and so little diversity in the ownership of its media, it is no wonder that when 800 Chicagoans came out to the hearing to tell the entire FCC whether they feel that their communities are being adequately served by local media. The answer was a resounding “no!” We heard impassioned testimony from our panelists and from over 200 Chicago citizens who signed up to testify before the Commission. Here are a few examples of the testimony we heard:

Dorothy Leavell, publisher, The Chicago Crusader – the oldest African-American weekly newspaper in both Chicago, IL, and Gary, IN: “We don’t want crumbs; we want meaningful participation, ownership, access to the airwaves, and more responsible programming….We are no longer on a level playing field. We aren’t even in the same ballpark. In 1996, the FCC hosted an “all-you-can-eat buffet” and the American people were not invited to dine….”

KRS-ONE, legendary hip hop recording artist and author: “Hearings are just that – hearings – we are listening to ideas go back and forth. But as we sit here right now there are hundreds of recording artists who can’t get their records played on radio…. Right now as we speak I cannot get my record played… please help me in this situation.”

Silvia Rivera, General Manager of 90.1 Radio Arté: “We do not own our own media. We will not be able to own our own media if further consolidation occurs…. If the FCC is here wanting to know if Chicago’s residents are being well served, the answer is no. If local talent is being covered, the answer is no. If community issues are being treated sensitively, the answer is no. If minority groups are getting the coverage and input that they need, the answer is no. The answer is no.”

Bottom line: The FCC must not move forward with new media ownership rules without first rectifying the sorry state of female and minority ownership of media, an issue that has been ignored by the Commission far too long. The time has come for us to stop talking and start taking meaningful steps to promote media diversity, because, as revealed in testimony after testimony in Chicago, ownership is the key to having your voice heard.

This is why I have called upon the Chairman to create an independent, bipartisan panel, representing broadcasters, female and minority owners, investors, advertisers, and the public. This independent female/minority ownership panel must review the more than 40 policy recommendations that were proposed by the FCC’s Diversity Committee and the Minority Media Telecommunications Council over the past 15 years. It is critical that we conduct a thorough review of these regulatory proposals, which have been collecting dust on the shelves of the FCC.

This is an undertaking that will require the collaborative efforts of the FCC and Congress; I’m thrilled to see that Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA) have voiced their strong support for this effort. I look forward to working with our friends at Free Press and the new Free Press Action Network to make sure that the public is engaged in this very important effort. I am hopeful that we can make real progress if we fight hard enough.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.