Posted on 04/11/2009 9:35:50 PM PDT by Delacon
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairman Michael Copps said Wednesday he intends to act boldly to help improve the diversity of broadcasters in the U.S.
"Today we commit to getting independent and credible information to gird what I intend to be meaningful action to right the injustice" of the lack minority- and women-owned broadcasters in the U.S., Copps said at an FCC meeting.
The FCC approved a proposal to improve data collection about broadcasting entities owned by women and minorities. The FCC voted to expand the number of broadcast entities that must file data to the commission about the ethnicity of their owners.
The Internet advocacy group Free Press said the FCC's 2007 data collection process missed over half of the radio stations owned by women and minorities and over two-thirds of the television stations. Still, Free Press says women and minorities own less than 10% of the full-power radio and TV stations in the country.
Media diversity has been a priority Copps, who is serving as interim FCC Chairman until President Barack Obama's pick for the job, Julius Genachowski, is installed. Genachowski has yet to be confirmed.
Copps announced Wednesday that he will appoint new members to a diversity advisory committee that will advise the FCC on how to expand media diversity. Among other things, the committee will examine whether the FCC should analyze broadcast license applications more broadly to help bolster the proportion of women and media owners.
Copps said the committee will be asked to recommend changes the FCC can put forth now to correct the "benign neglect" the commission has given the media diversity issue in recent years.
"It requires some clear signals that we're moving now, and we're trying to convey that signal today, that this commission is deadly serious about
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Get use to this term; "diversity advisory committee". Its coming soon to a neighborhood near you. Minorities. Women. Who can argue against that? Give me a break. This about the government deciding who gets to broadcast regardless of their gender or ethicity. Which woman or ethnic group representative are they going to pick? Its all a smoke screen for gaining control of those particular "broadcast mediums" they wish to suppress. The government has no business regulating political speech of any kind.
Oh boy....more rap “music” radio outlets......
I don’t understand....is the government going to seize broadcast outlets from certain owner/operators (i.e. seizing private property) and hand it over to women and/or minorities?
That doesn’t seem like it could happen. If it was attempted, people would riot.
Here it comes
No, they won't. A very large number will cheer it.
L
More rock radio stations are needed.
Quotas+diversity= end of democracy.
This has been used to license “anything but a white male”
by the FCC. This is not new but licessing and ownership are two different animals.
More Marxist thinking. We are in the "shit", as the warriors say. Stand by...
That’s great! So we will be getting about ten more conservative TV stations, right? and a few more right-leaning newspapers?
/sarc
“I dont understand....is the government going to seize broadcast outlets from certain owner/operators (i.e. seizing private property) and hand it over to women and/or minorities?
That doesnt seem like it could happen. If it was attempted, people would riot.”
Hey the goverment retroactivly taxed the bonuses they granted to financial bigwigs. I didnt hear many complaints. Nobody rioted. Why do you think they would shy away from seizing anything from “broadcast medium” owners?
Can you line up as many conservative black/hispanic/asian women as you can? Hey Michele Malkin! Everyone chip in and lets buy her a “broadcast medium” for her to own.
Here is your back door “Fairness Doctrine”.
What I don’t get is this — many radio stations are owned by corporations. A big one that comes to mind is Clear Channel Communications. Will they look to see if the Board of Directors of these media companies have women and minorities on them, or exactly how can they enforce their allegedly progressive standards of minority media ownership?
I guess what I’m trying to say is that a corporation is not black or white or any color. These media companies that are publicly traded are owned by stockholders of all colors. So would a company have to have a certain level of black ownership to be black owned, for example?
I have also heard that they may try to enforce local ownership or local programming standards. That could hurt lots of talk radio stations, which have Rush, Hannity, who are nationally syndicated. A number of talk radio stations have mostly nationally syndicated talkers as compared to their local programming.
I have no doubt of what they are trying to do. I just wonder what benign sounding system they will set up to accomplish it.
The greatest thing that ever happened for media diversity is the internet.
If/When the output from internet radio/TV goes wireless in most cities and towns that will be real diversity!
The technology is ready....just get gov out of the damned way.
Saul Alinsky: Use their own rules against them.
That’s exactly what it is. The governemnt owns the airways and can decide who gets to use them “for the public good” i.e. electing liberal Democrats.
“That could hurt lots of talk radio stations”
That is their goal.
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