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Racialism At The FCC: Un-Diverse ?Diversity? Committee, Unbalanced Support For Balance?

Two days ago Fox News reported a growing controversy over an un-diverse ?diversity? committee at the Federal Communications Commission (HatTip to InstaPundit).

A diversity committee at the Federal Communications Commission is raising the hackles of conservative watchdogs who say its ideological makeup is hardly diverse.

The FCC recently renewed the charter of its 31-member Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age, which is set to convene in Washington Thursday.

The committee?s mission is to help ?enhance the ability of minorities and women to participate in telecommunications and related industries,? according to the FCC. In past years the committee has suggested remedies like changing the tax code to help minorities purchase radio and television stations.

But conservatives say the committee is one-sided and made up primarily of liberal activists who have something more than diversity in mind.

That ?something more,? conservative critics charge, is ?a back-door campaign to revive the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which mandated equal time for opposing viewpoints during radio and television broadcasts, and whose demise in 1987 led to the explosion of conservative radio networks and programming.?

Are opposing viewpoints ? about ?diversity,? about the fairness doctrine ? equally represented on the FCC?s ?diversity? committee?

More troubling than the makeup of this committee, in my view, is what a Democrat-dominated FCC determined to produce more ?diversity? will actually do. As an article yesterday in the Wall Street Journal noted:

The president himself is on record as opposing the Fairness Doctrine but favoring media ownership caps and ?opening up the airwaves . . . to as many diverse viewpoints as possible.? In February, Michael Copps, a Democrat currently serving as acting chairman of the FCC, echoed Mr. Obama when he told CNSNews.com: ?If markets cannot produce what society really cares about, like a media that reflects the true diversity and spirit of our country, then government has a legitimate role to play.?

And what role might that be and how would it actually be played? The Fox News article quoted above gives one example: ?In past years the [?diversity?] committee has suggested remedies like changing the tax code to help minorities purchase radio and television stations.?

Having one?s taxes determined by race is a pretty drastic step. Perhaps the FCC can have the IRS issue racial identity cards to make the process easier.

At least the president gave lip service to ?diverse viewpoints,? but when Chairman Copps threatens (promises?) to have the FCC produce the ?true diversity? that market will not, does anyone think he means ?diversity? of anything over pigmentation? Of course, if Chairman Copps, the cop of the airwaves, really believes in the racialist essentialism underlying the ?diversity? mantra ? that minorities, especially, blacks are ?different? in essential and important ways ? then he may well believe that pigmentation is a valid proxy for viewpoint.

Full post as published by Discriminations on May 07, 2009 (boomark / email).