The Federal Communications Commission is launching an effort to promote media diversity with a proposal designed to boost minority ownership of television and cable properties. In the mid-1990s, Congress forced the agency to scrap a program that awarded tax certificates to companies selling media outlets to minorities. FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein and Chairman Michael Copps have long fought to reinstate tax deferrals that encourage sales to minorities and women but have been stymied by a court case setting a high bar for race-based incentives. "For years we've been frustrated by the lack of diversity in ownership," Commissioner Adelstein said during remarks at a Consumer Federation of America conference. To circumvent the obstacle, Adelstein said the agency wants to permit "disadvantaged" business to qualify. That category would include all races while skewing heavily toward helping minorities and women. "At a minimum we're going to launch Adarand studies and begin to review how we're going to change the definition," he said, referring the 1995 Supreme Court decision in Adarand Constructors v. Pena. Under that ruling, an agency can engage in a "limited amount of government favoritism" for minorities if it can demonstrate that such steps are necessary to address past discrimination, said Andrew Schwartzman, president and CEO of the Media Access Project, a public interest law firm. "I think that ultimate decision will take a significant amount of time because in order to do that we need to have better data than we have today to ensure that it's constitutionally sustainable," Adelstein added.
