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A Project of Free Press
Friend,

Since a police officer murdered George Floyd last May, the ensuing racial reckoning that’s taken place in our country has forced public and private institutions to acknowledge their history of racism. Now we’re calling on the Federal Communications Commission to examine how its policy choices and actions helped create a media system that harms Black people and other communities of color.

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Journalists of color have challenged several major media organizations to address how they have inflicted harm both within their newsrooms and in communities of color at large. The Los Angeles Times[1] and The Kansas City Star[2] published apologies last year acknowledging their history of racism. And now more newsrooms are being called on to do the same.

But newsrooms alone are not responsible for the systemic racism that exists in our media system. Federal policies and the choices that lawmakers and regulators have made have also played a foundational role in perpetuating the myth of Black inferiority — a myth that shapes decision-making around our criminal-legal system, and undermines Black lives and dignity every day.

There is so much we still do not know — or our nation has chosen to forget — when it comes to how the FCC has condoned racism in the media system or been indifferent to it. This is why we’re calling on the FCC to investigate its own history of racism and examine how its policy choices and actions have harmed Black people and other communities of color.

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The agency has passed policies that have prevented Black people and other communities of color from owning media outlets, and it has done next to nothing when faced with the racist actions of the broadcasters, cable companies and phone companies it has the responsibility to regulate.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D–New York) has just released a letter calling on the FCC to address its role in creating and perpetuating systemic inequities that exclude people of color from media-ownership opportunities.[3] Before we can move forward on the path to justice, we must first acknowledge the harm that has been done. Join us in calling on the FCC to investigate its own history of racism.

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Thanks for all you do,

Alicia, Joseph, Collette and the rest of the Media 2070 team
media2070.org

P.S. The FCC has passed policies that have prevented Black people and other communities of color from owning media outlets, and it has done next to nothing when faced with the racist actions of the broadcasters, cable companies and phone companies it has the responsibility to regulate. Urge the agency to investigate its own history of racism.

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1. “Editorial: An Examination of The Times’ Failures on Race, Our Apology and a Path Forward,” The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board, Sept. 27, 2020

2. Mike Fannin, “The Truth in Black and White: An Apology from The Kansas City Star,” The Kansas City Star, Dec. 20, 2020

3. footnote letter when available