Diversity Weak Among FCC Legal Elite

Kevin Martin’s recent insinuations that various minority groups and civil rights organizations opposed the a la carte sale of cable programming probably because they took bribes from the cable industry caused a brief firestorm.

Bitterly offended, the groups demanded an apology from the most powerful person in the United States who supports cable a la carte. Although they received one in writing within hours from Martin, they didn’t accept it on account of vagueness.

The Republican FCC chairman’s run-in with the minority groups wasn’t the first time his public comments, in the view of some, crossed the line of good taste.

When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in June tossed out the FCC’s crackdown on the fleeting broadcast of the “F-word,” a disgusted Martin issued a profanity-laced statement that disparaged the “New York” court and “they” in “Hollywood” as patrons of cultural pollution.

The statement’s reliance on not-so-subtle synecdoches to slime the opposition galled more than a few Jewish attorneys in Washington, D.C. communications circles. But none beefed in public, because tipping off the Anti-Defamation League isn’t exactly a wise career move when the incumbent FCC chairman holds the fate of your professional career in his hands for the next 72 weeks.

Martin’s decision to question the motives of minorities to further his relentless attacks on cable over the marketing of video programming was probably an ill-advised move from the leader of an institution where African Americans today occupy just a few of the top jobs.

Looking at just the upper echelon of the FCC – meaning the five commissioners and their top legal people, 20 jobs in all – African-American participation is non-existent in 80 percent of the top offices on the famed Eighth Floor.

All five FCC commissioners are white appointees of President Bush.

In six years at the agency, both as a commissioner and as its chairman, Martin has never hired an African-American to serve as a personal legal adviser, even though he has had at least 11 opportunities to do so. Same for Republican FCC member Deborah Taylor Tate in her 20 months on the job and for Republican Robert McDowell in his short time at the agency.

An FCC spokesman declined to comment, saying, “I am not providing information about the race of the chairman’s staff.”

FCC Democrat Michael Copps should not expect an image award from the NAACP, either.

Only one African-American lawyer has worked for him in his six years in office. According to FCC records, she was detailed to his staff from July 2002 to May 2003 before returning to a post in one of the bureaus. It appears that Copps, a preachy liberal with a Ph.D. in American history, has lost touch with his inner Gunnar Myrdal.

The exclusion would be total were it not for Democrat Jonathan Adelstein. His longtime legal adviser for media issues is an African American. In July, Adelstein announced a new hire, an African-American attorney.

So FCC’s leaders, served by 15 legal advisers total, have allocated just two of those key slots to African Americans, both by Adelstein.

Maybe Kevin Martin wouldn’t have played the race card so casually in the a la carte fight with cable if his legal team looked just a bit more like Adelstein’s.

It will be interesting to see whether any of this comes up at the FCC’s Sept. 20 media ownership public hearing in Chicago at Operation Push’s National Headquarters, Dr. King’s Workshop.