FCC Commissioner: Declining Black Media Ownership is a ‘National Disgrace’

FCC COMMISSIONER: DECLINING BLACK MEDIA OWNERSHIP IS A 'NATIONAL DISGRACE'
[SOURCE: Baltimore Times, AUTHOR: George Curry]
The level of Black ownership of broadcast media, which has fallen by 30 percent over the past nine years, is a “national disgrace” and reflects overall retrenchment in the march toward justice and equality, said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps before the 10th annual Wall Street Project conference of Rainbow/PUSH. “Today, we gather to talk about equality and justice in our broadcast media,” he began. “Neither equality nor justice exists there yet. We’re not even moving in the right direction toward equality and justice. Minority issues don't get decent coverage. Minorities don't own enough media. At its core, this issue is about civil rights, and one of those rights is accessible media that reflect and nourish the diverse genius of our nation.” Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., president and CEO of Rainbow/PUSH, invited the Copps and fellow FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein to a follow-up meeting he plans to hold in Chicago within the next two months to draw more attention to the issue. Complaining about television news and talk show programs that are “all day, all night ­ all White,” Rev Jackson agreed with the commissioners that the public must become more aggressive in insisting that the airwaves become more diverse. “We must make media access a mass movement,” Rev Jackson told those attending the session. “For too long, this has been a small movement. One hundred people at an FCC hearing may be more important than 50,000 marching at HHS (the Department of Health and Human Services).”
http://www.btimes.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=11945&sID=3