Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent U.S. government agency empowered to regulate communication industries and their content by the Communications Act of 1934. As the act is amended and technology advances, the FCC's role evolves. Minority and feminist organizations consistently urge the FCC to document discrimination in media industries and to promote diversity.

The FCC is a bipartisan group that comprises five commissioners appointed by the president for five-year terms. The agency processes license applications, conducts investigations, develops and implements regulations, and takes part in hearings. Specifically, the agency regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, telephone, wire, satellite, and cable. Although the FCC is restricted from violating First Amendment rights of broadcasters, the agency is permitted indirectly to regulate content. For example, the FCC can fine violators of obscenity standards. The FCC is funded by [Page 89]Congress, but most of its multimillion-dollar annual budget comes from fees paid by regulated industries and not tax dollars.

Perhaps the agency's most significant power is the ability to grant, revoke, renew, and modify broadcast licenses. Licenses are awarded or renewed using the “public interest, convenience, and necessity” standard. The original justification for licensing was the “scarcity rationale.” The FCC claimed, since there are natural limitations to the electromagnetic spectrum, licensing would eliminate broadcast signal interference. The FCC also justified licensing as a means of avoiding monopolies, arguing that limitations on broadcast station ownership would provide a robust marketplace of ideas.

The FCC gains new responsibilities as the Communications Act is amended, usually in response to new technologies. For example, the advent of cable television necessitated FCC regulation. Additionally, FCC responsibilities increase when new acts, such as the Telecommunications Act (1996) and the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act (2005), are passed.

Scholars hold different opinions about the FCC's effectiveness. One controversy surrounds prioritizing a “marketplace rationale” over the scarcity rationale. Starting in the 1980s, critics contended that the FCC had become too market-driven, often favoring business over educational or community needs in licensing decisions. Similarly, the move toward deregulation that began in the 1980s controversially resulted in more cross- and multiple ownership. The FCC now argues that removing ownership limits increases competition and lowers prices. Consumer advocates disagree, arguing that corporate mergers create large media empires, drive up prices, and reduce local news coverage.

Additionally, groups such as the National Organization for Women argue that consolidation creates difficulties for women and minority entrepreneurs. The number of women media company owners is meager. As of 2010, women owned approximately 5 percent of television stations and 6 percent of radio stations. Women of color own less than 1 percent of stations.

At times the FCC promoted a “diversity rationale,” based on the assumption that diversity of ownership leads to greater diversity of viewpoints in broadcasting and, consequently, supports its public interest mandate. At other times, commissioners have not advanced this rationale.

Similarly, at times the courts have supported the FCC's diversity rationale and at other times they have not. In the TV 9 (1973) case and in the Garrett (1975) case, courts ruled that there was a “reasonable expectation” of a link between minority ownership and program diversity. Moreover, in Metro Broadcasting (1990), the court upheld FCC policies designed to promote diverse media ownership. For example, in 1971, the FCC adopted a merit policy for minorities and extended it to women in 1978. This policy gave preferential status to minority and women applicants over similarly situated nonminority applicants. The FCC also created a program of tax certificates to provide incentive to sell stations to women or minorities. Additionally, the FCC created the distress sales policy in 1999, which ruled that out-of-market buyers, including minority broadcasters, must be given notice when a station is up for bid before it can be merged with an in-market station.

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