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Minority Groups Send Letter To FCC Asking For "Long Overdue Reports"

February 16, 2010

Hon. Julius Genachowski

Chairman

Federal Communications Commission

445 12th Street S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20554

Dear Chairman Genachowski:

RE: The FCC’s Civil Rights Record and Overdue

Section 257 Triennial Report to Congress

As you know, in Section 257 of the Communications Act, Congress requires the Commission to

submit triennial reports “identifying and eliminating…market entry barriers for entrepreneurs

and other small businesses….” The Commission submitted the required reports for 1997, 2000,

2003, and (several months late) 2006, but the Commission has not yet submitted its 2009 Report.

From your eloquent letter of January 5, 2010 to Henry Rivera, Chair of the Advisory Committee

on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age, we know that you share our concern for the

fact that minority ownership and employment in our industries are de minimis and in many

respects nearing extinction. Minority television ownership has decreased by 50% since 1999.

Minority radio ownership has declined by 9% just within the last three years. Minority wireless

and cable system ownership levels are near zero. Finally, minority radio journalism employment

has plummeted to less than 1%, a level not seen since 1950.

It is therefore unfortunate that, in 2009, the Commission failed to vote on any of the dozens of

pending proposals to advance minority ownership and participation in the industries the

Commission regulates, including proposals endorsed by the Advisory Committee on Diversity

for Communications in the Digital Age (http://www.fcc.gov/DiversityFAC/). The following

examples illustrate the Commission’s shortcomings in areas of concern to us. The FCC has

failed:

• To adopt any of the two dozen proposed noncontroversial initiatives that would give

minority businesses an opportunity to acquire FCC-licensed assets.

• To restore minimal enforcement of the broadcast Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)

Rule, and to assign a compliance officer to the 2007 Advertising Nondiscrimination Rule

which, if it were enforced, could restore to minority broadcasters the approximately $200

million every year that they forego because of racial discrimination by advertisers.

• To hold a hearing on Arbitron’s “Portable People Meter” (PPM) audience measurement

technology.

• For the fifth straight year since Hurricane Katrina – to act on the Spanish Radio

Association/United Church of Christ/MMTC petition to provide for the multilingual

broadcasts of emergency information. The September 8,2009 “FCC Preparedness for

Major Public Emergencies” Report did not even mention this critical issue.

• To repeal the 2006 Designated Entity rules that have decimated minority wireless

ownership: of the $19 billion fair market value of licenses sold in Auction 73 last year,

minorities acquired $5 million, or less than three-hundredths of one percent of the total

value of those licenses.

• To include even a mention of minorities or minority business enterprises in the December

2009 National Broadband Plan Framework – ignoring the transcripts from four staff

workshops and two field hearings at which the witnesses focused on minority

cyberpreneurship.

• To support the only remaining federal initiative aimed at promoting minority and women

media and telecom ownership – the Telecommunications Development Fund. Nowhere

in the Commission’s 2009 legislative recommendations was support for this vital

initiative mentioned. In fact, on January 28, the Administration – without consulting with

diversity advocates – proposed a budget that would eliminate the Fund entirely. The

budget narrative suggested that a proposed loan program and, even more implausibly, the

USF are adequate substitutes for this equity fund for new entrants.

To advance the civil rights objectives of the agency and the administration, we would be glad to

assist the Commission with a comprehensive review of what can be done in 2010 to promote

minority ownership and equal employment in the telecommunications sector. We specifically

ask that you place on the agenda of the Commission’s April 2010 public Commission meeting a

Report and Order adopting several of the dozens of long-pending, fully briefed and virtually

unopposed proposals to advance media and telecom ownership diversity.

Sincerely,

Asian American Justice Center

Black College Communication Association

The Hispanic Institute

Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership

International Black Broadcasters Association

Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

League of United Latin American Citizens

Minority Media and Telecommunications Council

National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters

National Association of Black Telecommunications Professionals

National Association of Latino Independent Producers

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

National Black Coalition for Media Justice

National Coalition on Black Civic Participation-Black Women’s Roundtable

National Congress of Black Women, Inc.

National Council of La Raza

National Puerto Rican Coalition

National Urban League

Rainbow PUSH Coalition

Spanish Broadcasters Association

United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

UNITY: Journalists of Color

Hon. Julius Genachowski

cc: Senator Robert Menendez

Congressman Bobby L. Rush

Congressman Edolphus Towns

Congressman G.K. Butterfield

Delegate Donna M. Christensen

Hon. Michael J. Copps, Commissioner, FCC

Hon. Robert McDowell, Commissioner, FCC

Hon. Mignon Clyburn, Commissioner, FCC

Hon. Meredith Attwell Baker, Commissioner, FCC

Hon. Calvin Smyre, President, National Black Caucus of State Legislators

Hon. Iris Martinez, President, National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators

Hon. Robin Read, President, National Foundation of Women Legislators

Hon. Sharon Weston-Broome, President, National Organization of Black Elected

Legislative Women

Hon. Robert Steele, President, National Association of Black County Officials

Hon. Sergio Rodriguez, President, Hispanic Elected Local Officials

Hon. Samuel Audwin, President, National Black Caucus of Local Elected Official

Hon. George Grace, President, National Conference of Black Mayors

ccs to FCC Dockets:

GN 09-51 (National Broadband Plan)

MB 09-817 (Portable People Meter)

MB 07-294 (Broadcast Diversity)

EB 06-119 (Hurricane Katrina Independent Panel)

WT 05-211 (Designated Entities)

EB 04-296 (Emergency Alert System)

MM 98-204 (Broadcast EEO

RM-11565 (MMTC Radio Rescue Petition)

The contact person for this letter is David Honig, President and Executive Director, Minority

Media and Telecommunications Council, 3636 16th St. N.W., #B-366, Washington, DC 20010,

(202) 332-7005 and dhonig@crosslink.net.

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