FCC, broadcasters discuss workplace diversity

WASHINGTON (June 24, 2002 7:44 p.m. EDT) - Broadcasting companies need to hire more minority and female employees, industry and government figures said Monday, even as differences arose on how to boost such hiring.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell, son of Secretary of State Colin Powell, told industry figures that ensuring the presence of minorities and women in media companies is a "strategic priority for the nation and any industry that hopes to make money in a diverse future."

The FCC held a hearing on a new set of government rules designed to improve diversity. The agency had equal opportunity rules in place, but a federal appellate court last year declared them unconstitutional.

In December, the FCC proposed a new set of regulations which would require media companies to make information about job opportunities widely available. Companies could publicize openings by sending job vacancy announcements to recruitment organizations, participating in job fairs and offering internship programs. Larger broadcasters would be required to file annual reports detailing their efforts.

Minorities owned 449 commercial radio and television stations in 2000 - less than 4 percent of the nation's full-power stations, according to a Commerce Department report. The principal issue Monday was whether greater diversification can be achieved only with federal supervision.

The National Cable Television Association, the top lobbying group for cable operators, said last year that its members would voluntarily adopt FCC diversity measures.

On Monday, Tom Baxter, president of Time Warner Cable, told the hearing, "We think it makes good social sense. We think it makes good business sense."

Not everyone in the industry wants new rules.

Ann Arnold, executive director of the Texas Association of Broadcasters, said there can be opportunities for minorities without the need for the FCC "to take a heavy-handed role and attempt to dictate specific requirements for how radio and television stations seek employees."

Arnold maintained that before the FCC's previous rules were struck down, these regulations buried broadcasters in paperwork and made them reluctant to complain about the rules for "fear they would be branded racist."

Charles Warfield Jr., president of the second largest black-owned radio company in the country, said he favors reinstating FCC equal-opportunity rules.

"When a young minority person considering whether to pursue radio or some other career looks at the top of our profession, he doesn't see a lot of people who look like him or her, except at minority-owned stations," said Warfield, president of ICBC Broadcast Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Inner City Broadcasting Corp.

Having federal rules on the books would "go a long way toward reassuring our young people that the broadcasting industry offers them real opportunity," he said.

Women are also underrepresented among the top executives of broadcast companies, said Joan Gerberding, president of American Women in Radio and Television. She said that last year, only 17 percent of general managers in television and 15 percent in the top 100 radio markets were women.

"It has taken the broadcast industry way too long to break out of bad habits - the old boys' network and word-of-mouth recruitment that have limited opportunities," Gerberding said. "Without the FCC's regulatory push to ensure that these old habits cease immediately, the glass ceiling will be perpetuated with too few cracks and never be shattered completely."

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell, son of Secretary of State Colin Powell, told industry figures that ensuring the presence of minorities and women in media companies is a "strategic priority for the nation and any industry that hopes to make money in a diverse future."

See, what you have here is a liberal, government-knows-best scumbag telling an industry what they need to do to "make money". I think industry knows better than some government bureaucracy what they need to do to make money. Michael Powell's statement represents the quintessential socialist mindset. Puke.

If it is true that "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree", then I am happier than ever that Colin doesn't want the Presidency.

Even if this is all just a toothless attempt to soften up black Democrat voters, it is still inexcusable, in my opinion.

Wish the FCC would worry about important stuff. Fer instance, did you know that there is NO restriction on the amount of commercials that can be run? "Station breaks," which used to be restricted to no more than two minutes now run five + minutes. Competitors ads are run back-to-back. Ford/GM or Coke/Pepsi. This is insane!! </rant off>

Broadcasting companies need to hire more minority and female employees, industry and government figures said Monday

Why do they? I never quite understood any point behind having more women and minorities in the workplace just to have em there. I'd be rather insulted to think I'd been hired as a token. But who are they trying to impress? I don't think legitimate businesses are really interested in "levelling the playing field". It's obviously all for show. In certain industries, I personally feel that too many women jam up the works and make guys too nervous to do their jobs properly. I always wondered how much the job market would open up if all the women who could afford to, stayed home and were wives and mothers solely.
/rant off.

More quotas and affirmative action being forced down the throats of successful businesses on pain of losing the ability to do business at all. The FCC wields a big hammer in the licensing department.

In 2001, I watched 43 hours of TV over the entire year. For 2002, that number is about 10 hours as of today. The inauguration of Bush and Sept 11th, 2001 vastly inflated my time in front of the tube in 2001.

My radio is on from 8 AM to 2 AM most days. AM radio has a variety of conservative talk shows and hourly news breaks. When the offering is poor, I switch to a country FM station to catch the latest offerings. I just purchased the new SheDaisy CD "Knock On The Sky" this evening as a consequence of listening to the radio. Radio is something that can be enjoyed while still paying attention to the screen and keyboard in the process of earning a living. It even comes with diversity: Rush Limbaugh, Walter Williams, Ken Hamblin, Art Bell, Dr. Laura, Michael Savage. Liberals may whine that all these names are conservative. Where is the balance? My answer: the off switch or my pile of CD music. Liberal talk shows and sports broadcasts get the off switch.

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