The president of the Minority Media and Telecom Council David Honig (pictured) wrote a scorching letter of disapproval to Hon. Julius Genachowski Chairman of the FCC requesting suspension of the rules and restructuring, hiring and investigating corporations more intently for infractions. Honig points out that the purpose of the EEO (equal employment opportunity) rules are now working AGAINST those it was intended to protect.
Honig states the FCC’s monitoring has been useless and infractions and violations are taking place by major industry corporations that are being ignored while minority organizations, who fulfill the EEO’s requirements hand s down for diversity are being targeted for outrageous minor infractions like improperly filling out paperwork. Honig goes on to request for a three month suspension of the broadcast EEO rule upon the passage of an entire year without EEO enforcement. Thus basically stating the broadcast and television industry has been free from any discriminatory practices and have ensured that the use of minorities and the resources to find them have been fair and balanced for 12 whole months. (LOL). Honig specifically states:
- MMTC’s analysis of Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) data shows that by 2006, minorities had virtually been purged from English language, non-minority owned radio journalism. The Commission has not responded to this crisis
- The EEO audit program is a meaningless exercise in paperwork and postage. Virtually all licensees pass. The Commission has not found that a single station audited engaged in discrimination; thus, discriminators have been passing their audits with ease. A 2009 MMTC study of 20 rand omly selected, racially diverse radio markets found that 40 out of 141 reporting units (28.4%) did not use minority sources ““ including, e.g., seven of the fourteen reporting licensees in Riverside-San Bernadino (population 52.2% African American and Hispanic). Yet the FCC’s audits ““ over the course of five years ““ have identified at only 24 licensees in the nation that supposedly were not compliant. If there is a saving grace, it is that a station only experiences one of these audits once every 20 years.10
- In short, FCC EEO enforcement has no apparent mission, no focus, no data for evaluation, and no results except sanctioning the innocent while ignoring the guilty. Such a program only creates the false security that comes when the constable is on duty yet asleep.
Read the entire PDF letter here > MMTC EEO SuspensionReq 062910…
