FCC Officials Push for Broadcaster Forum on Team Name

Reed Hundt, former-Federal Communications Commission Chairman and on-the-record opponent of using the name "Redskins" for the Washington football team, was among a number of former FCC officials signed on to a letter to current-FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn asking the FCC to use some muscle to get the name scrubbed.

The letter asks that she "convene an open forum with broadcasters to determine whether they should self-regulate their use of the term 'XXXskins' when referring to the Washington DC football team." Among the couple dozen signees are former FCC commissioners and officials Tyrone Brown, Henry Geller, Jonathan Adelstein, Nicholas Johnson, and Blair Levin (a former Hundt top aide), as well as veteran media attorney Andrew Schwartzman, Minority Media & Telecommunications Counsel President David Honig and former NTIA head Larry Irving. “The image of Washington is prominent throughout this country and the world. To continue arguing that the name "XXXskin" is an honor to Native Americans requires willful ignorance, which casts enormous doubt on team leadership,” the letter said. “As all of us have learned in international diplomacy, strength is essential to leadership and that includes moral strength. To tie this name to Washington's football team hurts that strength.”