Party platforms can be sleepy affairs. In recent years, platform writing too often became an exercise of box-checking to “reach out and touch” as many interest groups as possible so everyone felt involved, with an anodyne sentence or two thrown in so these interests felt included. Long on generalities and short on specifics, platforms in recent years were routinely adopted at the party’s convention—and then promptly forgotten.
[Commentary] While the nation is increasingly diverse, broadcasting remains mostly the province of white males. The number of Black-owned radio companies has dropped by more than 50 percent since 1995 and just 12 television stations — mostly in small markets — are Black owned. How did we get here? Like almost every industry, broadcasting historically has been dominated by white men. The Federal Communications Commission was 38 years old before it got its first Black member, in 1972; it did not get a Black chairman until 1997. Its policies generally have amplified this legacy of discrimination by allowing sweeping consolidation of media companies, further entrenching the status quo. As a practical matter, consolidation means far-away corporate owners more focused on the bottom line than on quality local journalism. And as media consolidation grows, people of color and women become less significant players in the media ecosystem.
We are deeply troubled by reports that the agency is poised to approve yet another Quadrennial Review without commissioning this research. That would spark more litigation and lead the courts to conclude, as they have three times now, that the agency must root its decisions in good social science. America’s strength is its diversity; we need to take advantage of it. Consigning communities of color and women to the sidelines in media programming, jobs, and ownership not only closes doors of opportunity for them, it weakens our society. It’s precisely the wrong way to go. We hope the FCC will choose better this time.
[Michael Copps is a retired FCC Commissioner and a special adviser for the Media and Democracy Reform Initiative at Common Cause. Wade Henderson is the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights]
A bi-partisan group of 26 senators is asking the Federal Communications Commission to establish new parameters for a Universal Service Fund mobility fund that would target broadband availability in croplands “or some other geographic measurement.” The goal would be to better support precision agriculture technology aimed at enhancing productivity and environmental sustainability. “These technologies are transforming US agriculture as American farmers and ranchers seek to feed, fuel and clothe an ever-increasing global population using limited land, water and other resources,” wrote the senators in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler
. The cropland or other geographic measurement would be in addition to another metric that has been used in targeting Universal Service Fund support for mobile services — road miles. The letter, spearheaded by Sens Roger Wicker (R-MI) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), notes that cropland coverage can be assessed using US Department of Agriculture data for crop operations, the US Geological Survey’s Land Use classification or other databases.
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