Pai Under Pressure to Target Racism Following Charlottesville

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is facing criticism for not doing more in reaction to racism following events in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month where white supremacists held a rally and an anti-racism marcher was killed. Former federal officials who attended last month's Aspen Institute communications conference said there was buzz that Pai should convene a diversity summit.

FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny called the chairman out after Pai, who is of Indian descent, responded on Twitter to a number of racist posts. “@AjitPaiFCC I wish you could get president Trump to condemn white supremacists & make it clear there is room in his admin for everyone,” McSweeny tweeted Aug. 20.

“There was a lot of consternation about Charlottesville” at the invitation-only Aspen event, said a federal official. People asked: “What can we do? What do people who have government jobs do? How do we handle this?” the official said. A Republican lawyer said the work at the FCC has little connection to Charlottesville and noted that the majority of commissioners are minorities. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn is black and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel is Jewish, the lawyer noted.

"What we need from the FCC is action, not more summits, seances, and ignored recommendations,” former Commissioner Michael Copps told us. “The commission has an abysmal record on advancing minority interests and diversity in media. It doesn't need more recommendations to stuff in a desk drawer. It needs to implement solutions we already know." Copps is now at Common Cause.

“The best memorial to Charlottesville would be what is done to move the nation beyond its history of institutional injustice,” said David Honig, president emeritus of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council. Honing noted that FCC is re-establishing its Advisory Committee on Diversity. “Let’s see what the chairman’s plans are,” he said.

An FCC spokesman cited Pai’s relaunch of the diversity committee, disbanded during the Obama administration.

Clyburn “remains supportive of solution-driven efforts that highlight and address longstanding tensions and outstanding regulatory bottlenecks that prevent our nation and all of its citizens from realizing the very ideals on which this country was built,” an aide said Friday. “The convening of a diversity summit to underscore the commission’s commitment to inclusion in the telecommunications, technology and media sectors would further her goal of bridging the digital and opportunities divide while affirming and celebrating the tremendous value added by a chorus of diverse voices.”

Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said PK is part of the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC)-led Coalition Against Hate. For the past 10 years, the coalition “has been trying to sound the alarm” about the risks hate speech poses both on radio and online, he said. The NHMC declined to comment. “The FCC has a role to play,” Feld said: “There are legitimate concerns about censorship” but also that hate speech constitutes “calls to violence, organizational steps to violence.” The FCC can do a lot that doesn’t require regulation, he said. “The FCC is uniquely poised to convene people, to investigate, to discuss the issue, to discuss tools for monitoring, to raise the public profile.”

The FCC said in a ​Federal Register​ notice Friday its Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment will meet for the first time Sept. 25 starting at 10 a.m. at headquarters. The agenda will include introducing members of the group and establishing working groups, the agency said: The committee will “generally discuss the Committee's mission to provide recommendations to the FCC on how to empower disadvantaged communities and accelerate the entry of small businesses, including those owned by women and minorities, into the media, digital news and information, and audio and video programming industries.”