Rush ‘grossly underwhelmed’ by FCC’s ‘lip service’ on civil rights issues

A prominent member of the Congressional Black Caucus said Thursday he’s tired of the Federal Communications Commission’s lack of progress on civil rights issues.

“To date, I have been grossly underwhelmed by the lip service and platitudes I have heard from this commission regarding the importance of concluding commission proceedings, studies and reports that can dramatically affect the fortunes of minority viewers, listeners, new market entrants, established businesses and entrepreneurs,” Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) said.

{mosads}”Their words aren’t matching up with their actions.”

Rush’s comments come one day after the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) joined more than 20 other civil rights advocacy groups including the NAACP in criticizing the FCC for failing to act on issues critical to minority representation in the media.

When asked for a reply, FCC spokesman Robert Kenny referred Hillicon
Valley to his initial
response to the group’s letter, where he referenced the
minority ownership conditions attached by the Commission to the
Comcast-NBC Universal and Sirius-IM mergers.

“We are committed to upholding and fostering the civil rights of every
American and remain focused on truly making a difference in people’s
lives — to spur opportunities for people through policy initiatives
that harness technology and adapt to a changing communications landscape
in America,” Kenny said.

The ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce’s Energy and Power
subpanel, Rush campaigned for the minority’s top slot on the
Communications Subcommittee with the CBC’s support but lost a vote to Rep. Anna Eshoo
(D-Calif.), who represents Silicon Valley.

Before the vote Rush attracted some criticism from net neutrality advocates, who complained he hadn’t been vocal enough on the issue or done enough for minorities. He rebutted those charges in a December speech where he criticized former FCC chairman Kevin Martinfor neglecting minority access to broadband.

The liberal group that criticized Rush, Color of Change, took credit for swinging the vote to Eshoo. Leader James Rucker claimed Rush, along with the White House and FCC, had failed the left on net neutrality.

Rush thanked the MMTC for defending him from those accusations at the organization’s conference last month, where he said increasing minority media ownership is the primary reason he sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

That’s because Rush believes minority-owned businesses are far more inclined
to train future minority business owners, recruit and hire minority
workers, and locate their operations in minority communities.

One of the advocacy groups’ complaints he cited Thursday was the FCC’s failure to address its backlog of over 70 pending minority ownership proposals. He also complained that the commission has yet to rule on the 2005 Hurricane Katrina petition for multilingual emergency communications.

“I will also be paying close attention to the resolution of these issues as we review the FY 2012 budget,” Rush said.

“I strongly believe that the issues raised by the MMTC should be accorded the same attention that the FCC has paid to other high-priority items, such as the national broadband plan, and I will be working to ensure that all of the issues outlined in their letter are thoroughly resolved.”