Press Release

NAHJ Submits Comments With the FCC Opposing Media Consolidation and Called on the Commission to Increase Minority Ownership

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists submitted comments with the FCC yesterday opposing the agency’s effort to rewrite our nation’s broadcast ownership regulations.

In its filing, NAHJ stated that it opposed further media consolidation because of the impact it has on minority ownership and on communities of color. NAHJ called on the FCC to stop its current ownership proceedings and address how to increase minority broadcast ownership. NAHJ noted that the FCC currently has no policies in place to foster the growth of minority owners, meanwhile people of color currently make up 33 percent of the U.S. population.

NAHJ believes that increasing minority ownership will increase viewpoint diversity, a cornerstone of FCC policy. It will also increase employment opportunities for people of color and programming for communities of color. According to a recent study, people of color make up just 3.26 percent of all TV station owners.

In its comments, NAHJ also discussed the FCC’s history of neglect in dealing with minority ownership issues and reminded the commission that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2004 ruling in the Prometheus case, told the commission that it had not addressed how to increase minority owners or examine the impact of its policy decisions on minority owners. In that 2004 case, the court remanded the FCC’s attempt to usher in new broadcast regulations.

NAHJ also submitted all of its correspondence with the National Telecommunications and Information Agency. In April, NAHJ wrote to the NTIA and asked the agency whether it planned to conduct another minority ownership study. The last study the agency released was in 2000. In that study, the NTIA found that people of color make up just 3.8 percent of all broadcast owners and that media consolidation threatened the future of minority ownership.

John Kneuer, the acting assistant secretary for the NTIA, wrote back to NAHJ and stated the agency had no current plans to conduct another study. Since then, the non-profit group Free Press has released a study on the state of minority TV ownership and found that people of color own just 3.26 percent of all local TV stations. The group used the FCC ownership reports to conduct the study. It found that these reports contain inaccurate ownership information. Free Press had to verify the owners of the more than 1,300 TV stations in the country before releasing its study. The study does not examine radio because the group does not have the resources to conduct a similar study for radio.

In its filings, NAHJ called on the FCC to study the racial, ethnic and gender make up of our nation’s radio owners. NAHJ also submitted into the record a letter sent by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to Sen. Bill Frist and Sen. Harry Reid, urging the Senate to hold up the nomination of John M.R. Kneuer to become the NTIA assistant secretary until the agency agreed to conduct another minority ownership study.