FCC Threatens to Shut Down Agreements Allowing This Black Conservative Station Owner to Stay On Air By Kira Davis 5 days ago “How many black people own a broadcast television station in the United States? The answer is one: Armstrong Williams…So imagine my surprise when I heard that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is currently considering pulling the financial rug from under him by changing its regulations to – get this – promote diversity.” This is the opening statement from a very interesting WSJ op-ed(subscription only) from Fox News’ Juan Williams. FCC targeting black business owners? Given this administration’s open disdain for capitalism I had to look into this. So I did. Here’s more from Juan Williams’ article: The government is concerned that the large broadcast companies are using these sales and services agreements with smaller owners to circumvent current rules intended to create diversity of broadcast property ownership. But without these agreements, there would be no black owners because of “the realities of the current marketplace,” says Jane Mago, general counsel of the National Association of Broadcasters. I’m just a stay-at-home mom with a computer and a sport SUV. Like most Americans I have no clue about the ins and outs of broadcast television. I’m guessing most of you don’t either so here’s a quick cheat sheet A Joint Service Agreement (JSA – also known as a Sidecar agreement) is an arrangement between a larger communications group (in this case Sinclair Broadcasting) and smaller broadcast stations. The larger group provides the smaller stations with funding needed to operate and the stations in turn offer a percentage of their profits. That doesn’t sound too crazy and in fact the FCC has up until this point approved of such agreements as they allow smaller stations to be competitive in local markets. Stations like those owned by Armstrong Williams. Smaller stations would simply cease to operate if they weren’t able to secure funding based on their relationships with groups like Sinclair. Its a win-win for everyone. Williams’ stations serve a couple of very large minority markets. Furthermore, Williams is a strong presence in those communities. He has donated his time, finances and broadcasting abilities to target the local minority populations his stations serve. Oh, one more thing… Armstrong isn’t just black… he’s a black conservative (which I can personally attest is no easy road to walk down). Now the FCC has suddenly decided they want to shut down the JSAs they previously approved, which will basically shut down Armstrong Williams and the only minority owned stations in the country. The FCC says these “sidecar” agreements are nothing but a work-around to circumvent the FCC rules of ownership. Those rules of ownership were enacted by the FCC in order to “promote diversity” (doesn’t it just make you giggle when you hear the government talk about diversity?). Of course, the FCC is planning on leaving the big cable conglomerates alone. Business as usual for those guys. Small-business minorities…sorry, you’re out of luck. Can I just be real with you for a moment? Let me just break this down as I see things. Black man works his butt off, rises to the top of his business and becomes one of the only black broadcast station owners in the country. Said black man does what we are all asked to do as black people when we succeed – he takes his success directly back to the community. The FCC – which now serves under our first black president - decides diversity in broadcasting is being threatened and makes a move to eliminate the only black broadcaster in the country. You do the math on that one. The real kind of math, not the convoluted, whiskey-soaked government math that tells us we have a 6.7% unemployment rate. This is what happens when government decides to legislate “diversity”. Inevitably the power behind their legislation becomes a strong arm to promote their own version of acceptable diversity. It doesn’t seem to bother the powers-that-be at the FCC that they are basically dooming the only black-owned station in the country and handing out pink slips to black employees in depressed markets like Flint, MI. Even the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (seems like a pretty exclusive group these days) was once opposed to JSAs but now supports the arrangements because of “the precipitous fall-off of African-American television ownership in the past few years”. How “precipitous”? According to Fox News’ Juan Williams (no relation) the number of black owned broadcasting outlets owned by black owned companies has dropped from twenty-one to just three. So the FCC wants to put monitors in news rooms, wants to shut down the only black (conservative)-owned stations in the country and just so happens to be targeting the group that funds those stations while leaving the big cable companies alone. Add to that the recent targeting of conservative groups and personalities by the IRS and the Obama administration’s idea of “diversity” starts to become more than a little creepy. It’s becoming a weapon; and considering that elections move in cycles and one day we will have a Republican President again, I think this is something everyAmerican should be worried about. Freedom works (or doesn’t) the same for you as it does for me. Calls to Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow P.U.S.H. and Al Sharpton’s National Action Network regarding this issue went unreturned. The FCC is moving quickly on this. If you are concerned make a call or drop an email to your representatives in D.C. and tell them you will not stand for this special brand of prejudice. ijreview/2014/03/121070-fcc-threatens-shut-black-conservative-station-owner-draft/
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 13:58:11 +0000
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