The FCC & Censorship: Legendary Media Activist Everett Parker

The FCC & Censorship: Legendary Media Activist Everett Parker on the Revocation of WLBT’s TV License in the 1960s for Shutting Out Voices of the Civil Rights Movement

Everett Parker, media activist for more than half a century. He founded and served as director of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ from 1954 until 1983. In the 1960s, he reviewed the civil rights performance of television stations in the South and identified WLBT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi as a frequent target of public complaints. He filed a “petition to deny renewal” with the FCC, initiating a process eventually got the station’s license revoked and had far-reaching consequences in American broadcasting. He is currently an adjunct professor of communications at Fordham University. He is ninety-five years old.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/6/the_fcc_censorship_legendary_media_activist

The WLBT case was truly a landmark...but one of the rare moments of clarity of the FCC. In the 70's, they went after some right wing religious radio stations that also had abused their public license with violent rhetoric. But those were long gone days...before "deregulation" and hate radio. The envelopes of public "discourse" had made "controversial" content...shock jocks and hate radio...a first ammendment cause rather than one of taste and fairness. Radio and television have become more inclusive as formats geared toward one political persuassion (predominately "conservative") use the public airwaves and the shield of the first ammendment and corporate domination of the flow of this programming to turn the concept of fairness on its head.

Thanks to fine folks like John McCain and his gal-pal Iseman, Kevin Martin a cadre of beltway lawyers, lobbyists and big money, no one stands a chance to deny renewal of licenses. The process has been made lengthy and time consuming...putting the burden on those who accuse while the stations can hide behind rules they've paid for to protect their overall interests.