Rainbow PUSH Coalition founder Rev. Jesse Jackson has told the Federal Communications Commission it should approve the merger of Standard General and Tegna.

Tegna, which owns 64 TV stations in 51 U.S. markets, agreed to be acquired by Standard General in February for $8.6 billion including debt. McLean, Virginia-based Tegna also owns multicast networks True Crime Network, Twist and Quest, as well as advanced-advertising company Premion.

In a letter to the FCC Monday (December 12), Jackson said that after meeting with Standard General founding partner Soo Kim, who is Asian-American, and upon “careful and scrupulous review of his record on diversity and inclusion,” he and his organization “wholeheartedly support the purchase of Tegna.”

Jackson said: “Soo Kim, being Korean-American, is sensitive to the plight of racial justice, equity and inclusion. It is my strong belief that Soo Kim would be committed to inclusion which leads to growth in the America of our dreams. He will honor the spirit and the law representing the best in American ideals … he is one of us.”

Also: Frank Washington Backs Standard General-Tegna Deal

Jackson said that if the merger is approved, he would monitor the combined company to make sure that “promises made are promises kept.”

Jackson has long argued that who controls the media, and thus what gets covered and from which perspective, is the civil-rights issue of this century.

Standard General and Tegna have been emphasizing the racial and gender diversity of its executive leadership given that more diverse media ownership is one of the FCC’s public-interest goals.  Standard Media CEO Deb McDermott would head up the combined Standard General-Tegna media group. ■

This country has not done enough to close the digital divide, rural and urban, and must do better as a matter of basic fairness. That was the message from FCC commissioner Geoffrey Starks in his keynote address Thursday (Nov. 19) to the Rainbow Push Coalition and Citizenship Education Fund Media and Telecommunications Symposium.

As with most events in a time of COVID-19 the usually in-person D.C. equity summit was held virtually.

He began his remote keynote with a shout-out to Rainbow Push and other groups. 

"[T]he fight for justice is neither a fleeting moment nor a state of convenience," he said. "It is instead a consistent, ever-evolving movement built on the personal and professional sacrifices made by civil rights leaders who advocate for those who have been ignored or forgotten."

Related: Starks Is in Search of Digital Equity

Rainbow Push founder, Rev. Jesse Jackson, has long argued that ownership and access to communications outlets is a civil right.

"Our failure to create inclusive policies that close the digital divide has done serious harm to the Americans who were already struggling to put food on their tables prior to the pandemic," Starks said, arguing that the digital divide has morphed during the pandemic into a "monstrous COVID-19 divide."

While much of the digital divide focus has been on rural areas, he said the pandemic has laid bare the truth that it is an urban divide as well. "[T]hree times as many households in urban areas remain unconnected as in rural areas," he said, with people of color representing a disproportionate number of those unconnected homes. 

He said it is past time for the tech and telecom sectors to take account of equity issues, which are not far off distant concepts, but principles anchoring a shared collective future.

Starks said the digital divide and economic opportunity divide run parallel to each other. "Broadband is the vehicle that allows people to take control of their lives," he said. "Working family members should be able to set up their work stations from the safety [of] their homes" rather than hunting for free WiFi access. To have to do otherwise negatively impacts their personal dignity.

He also said the pandemic has been particularly hard on Black-owned businesses on the wrong side of that divide. He said that a whopping 41% of black-owned businesses have had to shutter, with many of those lacking the ability to offer their products or services online as an alternative.

Related: Clyburn Is a Voice for the voiceless

"Black-owned businesses are cornerstones of our neighborhoods and they need access to updated technology so they can serve our communities. Rebooting our economy means ensuring that Black businesses get connected," Starks said.

There is also a work-from-home divide. 

"Less than one in five Black workers and roughly one in six Latinx workers can work from home, which means their work outside of the home puts them at greater risk of exposure to the virus," Starks told his audience. They need access to telehealth via "affordable, reliable broadband," he said, adding that connectivity would also help with mental health, particularly seniors, given the toll taken by increased social distancing.

Washington — Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler stopped short of saying he would press the pause button on his proposal to “unlock” cable set-top boxes, but he has signaled he would work with members of the committee on their issues with the proposal.

And they did have issues.

The key to that exchange — which took place at an FCC oversight hearing on Capitol Hill — was that it was with a Democratic legislator who was asking for the delay, and that lawmaker wasn’t alone.

Last week, the National Urban League joined the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition and others in calling on the FCC to delay any action on the set-top proposal until it had studied the impact of the proposal on diverse programmers.

Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) said at the hearing that she has asked the Congressional Research Service to conduct such a study, and asked Wheeler if he would be willing to hold off until the study was completed.

Wheeler did not commit to a delay, saying only that he would “look forward to working with [Clarke] and the committee” on any issues raised. He did not say he would delay the proceeding, and he said he did not know how long a delay was contemplated.

As expected, committee Republicans hammered Wheeler over the proposal, saying it threatened copyright protections and privacy and was unnecessary and rooted in old technology and thinking. That pushback has now become bipartisan.

Also at the hearing, Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) went so far as to suggest that he joined some stakeholders in concerns that the proposal could mean a new form of digital redlining.

Butterfield said he was concerned about the potential for the “myriad unintended consequences” of the proposal, including the ability to enforce copyright protections for content creators and distributors.

Wheeler continued to assert last week that the proposal doesn’t threaten copyright holders. In providing an example, though, he also provided fodder for cable ISPs and other opponents.

In talking about his proposal and how it would not allow those third parties to ride roughshod over copyright protections, Wheeler said there are “today the equivalent of competitive set-top boxes available in the market,” citing Google’s Chromecast device. Wheeler said that Chromecast does not violate copyright, does not “overlay commercials” and is not out to take over cable TV, calling that notion “malarkey.”

The Future of TV Coalition, which includes cable ISPs and others opposing the set-top proposal, was quick to pick up that comment and run with it, saying it showed there are already alternatives in the market and that makes the set-top proposal unnecessary.

“If the classic Washington definition of a ‘gaffe’ is to accidentally tell the truth, Chairman Wheeler’s comments at today’s hearing are a whopper,” the coalition said in a statement. “He admitted, plainly and clearly, that apppowered devices like Chromecast and Roku offer consumers an alternative to traditional set-top boxes and are readily available in the marketplace. Which begs the question — why is the chairman so desperate to solve a problem that he admits does not exist?

“Chairman Wheeler correctly points out that apps-driven innovation is already allowing consumers to watch video on a wide range of devices — without hurting small and independent programmers, invading privacy, or undermining copyright protections. Why, then, is he proposing a sweeping mandate that explicitly rejects this apps approach and strips TV providers of the technical and contractual tools they currently use to ensure these protections remain in place?”

In response, FCC press secretary Kim Hart told Multichannel News: “What the coalition fails to acknowledge is that 99% of pay TV consumers rent a box from their pay TV provider, paying $231 a year on average. The marketplace is not providing consumers with choice.

“While Roku and Chromecast may provide ‘equivalent’ functions to a set-top box, today these devices and consumers that use them remain bound by the whims of the pay TV industry,” Hart added. “Pay TV providers choose which device to make an app for and independent app providers cannot develop an app to display this video programming. For instance, no MVPD provides an app to Chromecast.”