Minority Media & Telecom Council (MMTC) and more than 40 other gr...

Minority Media & Telecom Council (MMTC) and more than 40 other groups representing minorities endorsed most of FCC’s proposals on EEO rules, they said in comments Mon. on rulemaking. EEO compliance is essentially only public service Commission requests of radio stations and one of very few required of TV stations, cable systems and other mass media outlets, MMTC coalition said. “Equal opportunity should be sacrosanct in the law of broadcasting and cable,” group said. “By seeking to curtail the tradition of exclusionary word-of-mouth recruitment that is so common in close-knit industries like broadcasting and cable, the Commission’s civil rights policies can ensure that the mass media industries are held to the highest standards of enlightened business in providing equal opportunity.” Comments on were due Mon., replies May 15. NCTA endorsed FCC’s plan on EEO rules, including proposed menu of recruitment options. It said cable systems would choose 2 options from menu to increase awareness of cable industry job opportunities, except for cable systems with 6-10 employees, which would be required to choose one option from menu. NCTA also said systems should be required to maintain records that documented recruitment efforts and compliance. Cable industry doesn’t oppose continued filing of reports, it said. NAB offered what it called “a realistic alternative EEO plan” that would have stations with 10 or more full-time employees certify every 4 years that they had either complied with EEO regulations for federal contractors, completed their state broadcaster association’s “Broadcast Careers” program or completed required mix of NAB’s general or specific outreach initiatives. Mesquite Independent School Dist., licensee of radio station KEOM in Mesquite, Tex., asked FCC to raise level for exemption to EEO rules to operations with 10 or fewer full-time employees. School district said its station had only 5 employees and rules were “burdensome” for such small operation that could use its recruitment resources only during school year. Media Captioning Services, women-owned Cal. company, asked FCC to extend EEO requirements on cable operators and broadcasters to vendors such as itself. It complained that it was losing business to companies that sought merely to cut costs without regard to hiring minorities and women. Having twice been reversed by courts, FCC in Dec. proposed new set of rules that were worded more broadly than predecessors (CD Dec. 13 p4). Proposed new set essentially is repeat of Option A of earlier version, requiring broadcast licensees to widely disseminate information about job openings to various segments of community and asking cable entities to conform to same principle as much as possible. In addition to requiring broad outreach for all full-time vacancies, proposed rules would require selecting from menu of general outreach activities, including job fairs and internship programs.