November 2009

[Commentary] Earlier this week at the Commission meeting, the Broadband Task Force outlined key gaps that need to be addressed before the U.S. can enjoy universal broadband. There are gaps in the public safety and homeland security sector that I think are important and worth highlighting. Specifically, we are still determining how best to ensure the creation of a nationwide, interoperable public safety broadband network. Today, there is no such network that meets the requirements of the public safety community. More generally, there is a broadband connectivity gap for the public safety community, including the police, fire fighters, the emergency medical response community, and many 911 centers. This gap limits the potential for development of broadband applications that would vastly enhance the ability of public safety personnel to protect lives and property. The only broadband wireless services available today are those offered by commercial providers, which lack the coverage and resiliency that public safety requires.

A coalition of minority journalists is looking to drum up support for the Federal Communications Commission's proposed codification and expansion of FCC network neutrality guidelines. That comes against a backdrop of some difference of opinion in the minority community on whether that proposal could work for or against the interests of communities of color--nothing is yet set in stone and the FCC is seeking lots of comment. Unity: Journalists of Color comprises four groups: the National Association of Black Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association. According to a copy of a letter to a host of groups including the NAACP, National Council of La Raza, and the National Disability Institute, the alliance says it wants others to join it in calling for strong network neutrality rules. They warn that without rules they say would prevent ISP's from discriminating against content online, access would go to the highest bidder, "erect[ing] additional barriers preventing journalists of color from providing our community with the news and information they need to participate in a democratic society."

Oprah Winfrey is fleeing broadcast television for cable. NBC, once arguably the biggest cultural tastemaker in the United States, is being shopped to Comcast, the country's largest cable company. Have we finally reached a tipping point that suggests a remarkable decline in the fortunes of broadcast television in America? Most analysts and many executives agree that the economic model of broadcast television — which relies much more heavily on advertising than cable — is severely fractured. What they are wondering now is if it is irreparably broken. The business model of the big three networks — which became four when Fox began prime-time programming in 1987 — has for decades relied on a simple formula: spend millions on original programming that will attract advertiser dollars and later live on as lucrative reruns in syndication. But ratings are going down. In the 1952-53 television season, more than 30 percent of American households that owned televisions tuned in to NBC during prime time, according to Nielsen. In the 2007-8 season, that figure was just 5.2 percent.

Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell told a RainbowPUSH audience Friday that the key to minority ownership is, well, ownership. Addressing the group's Media & Telecommunications Symposium, Commissioner McDowell said that he wanted to foster minority ownership that can be legally sustained--like a minority tax certificate program--and that will "first do no harm," but he also said it was not primarily an issue of color, at least not political hues or skin color. "To boil it down," he said, "if you want to own something, somehow you have to find the money to buy or build it. This isn't a matter of 'blue' America versus 'red' America. It's not about focusing on the differences among black, white or brown America. Instead, we should focus on the color that can unify us all, the color that can empower small entrepreneurs to change a dream into a reality. And that color is the color green."