The U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled Jan. 16 that the Federal Communications Commission's Equal Employment Opportunity regulations were unconstitutional, citing that the rules unlawfully put pressure on broadcasters to recruit people of color for job openings. "Today's decision is a defeat for diversity," said outgoing FCC Chair William Kennard. "At a time when many Americans are outraged at the lack of minorities in prime time and in the boardrooms of America, the broadcasters have once again used the courts to strike down even a modest outreach effort." Last year, the FCC issued the new EEO regulations after the court found the commission's old rules unconstitutional. The new EEO rules called for broadcasters to achieve broad outreach in their recruiting efforts by widely disseminating information about job openings. To achieve this, broadcasters were given two options. Under the first option, broadcasters had a choice of four initiatives for recruiting job applicants that the commission authorized, including participating in job fairs, co-sponsoring a job fair and establishing internship programs.Under the second option, they could design their own outreach programs but had to report to the FCC the race and sex of each job applicant and the source that applicant was referred by. The court found that the second option "put official pressure upon broadcasters to recruit minority candidates, thus creating a race-based classification that is narrowly tailored to support a compelling governmental interest and is therefore unconstitutional."It threw out the entire regulation because it found that the unconstitutional portion of the rule is not "severable."

OWNERSHIP STUDY:

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration found Jan. 16 that the number of television stations owned by Hispanics and other people of color decreased between 1998 and 2000 while the number of radio stations increased. Overall, people of color own 3.8% of all broadcast stations. The study found that the number of full-power television stations owned by Latinos decreased from six in 1998 to one in 2000, while overall the number of full-power stations increased from 130 to 187. Overall, Hispanics own 0.1% of all television stations and 1.8% of all radio stations. People of color owned 23 fewer television stations in 2000 than in 1998, but 121 more radio stations. They owned 1.9% of all TV stations and 4.0% of all radio stations.

ON THE MOVE: Former president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Evelyn Hernández was appointed Jan. 16 opinion page editor of El Diario/la prensa in New York. She worked for the last year as a writer and editor with the paper. Prior to joining El Diario, Hernández worked as an editor and reporter for New York Newsday for eight years.