FCC head vows impartial review of ‘Redskins’

The head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is promising that his personal opposition to the Washington Redskins name won’t influence whether or not radio and TV stations will be able to repeatedly say the word.

Chairman Tom Wheeler wrote a letter to the Los Angeles Times on Sunday claiming that the agency’s review of the NFL team’s name is independent of his own belief.

{mosads}“[M]y personal views are just that — personal — and should not be perceived as an indication on how the commission will or won’t act,” he wrote.

Last month, the FCC received a request to deny renewal of a Washington sports radio station’s license because it “deliberately, repeatedly and unnecessarily” broadcast the name, which many consider to be an offensive slur against Native Americans. The name “constitutes profanity,” the petitioner argued. 

The agency is currently reviewing that petition. If it is granted and the station’s license is not renewed, companies throughout the nation would effectively be put on notice not to use the name of the team in their broadcasts.

But the FCC is just going through the normal motions, Wheeler wrote.

“This is what we do with all petitions,” he argued. “To say that we are reviewing it says nothing about its merits or how we might rule.”

“The FCC’s primary focus is on maximizing the benefits of communications technology for the American people while furthering free expression and the 1st Amendment.”

Wheeler himself has criticized the name as “offensive and derogatory,” and has made pains to refer to the team as “the Washington football club” and other similar titles.