Three Commissioners Now Pressuring Redskins Owner

Will the word "Redskins" wind up being banished to the indecent list that nobody on TV or radio can say? At a press conference Tuesday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he finds the word "Redskins" offensive and urged the NFL team to change its name. "There are a lot of names and descriptions that were used for a time that are inappropriate today. I think the name that is attributed to the Washington football club is one of those." And now you can add Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to the list of commissioners that have gone public in stating the name should go.

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Legally speaking, there's nothing the FCC can do about it, so boo hoo. It's not offensive, this is PC idiocy, and nobody cares except the tiny, tiny minority of people making noise about it.

Does Tom Wheeler have any Native American blood in him?
"Redskins" can have different meanings, both good and offensive.
"Braves" seems very innocuous to me.....one of my Georgia ancestors ran 50 miles, to report a massacre to his Chief.

It's been reported that Snyder has been looking to sell his radio stations. Maybe even to Cumulus. Once that happens, what leverage does the FCC or Banzhaf have?

Net result: Another local owner forced out of radio, more stations owned by a handful of big corporations. Great job, FCC.

I could see them nixing such a sale and still attempting to enforce some sort of policy against him just to make a point out of spite. It's not like they haven't played that card before... though I can't recall them ever holding up a sale in that endeavor.

JoshTheRadioDude said:

I could see them nixing such a sale and still attempting to enforce some sort of policy against him just to make a point out of spite. It's not like they haven't played that card before... though I can't recall them ever holding up a sale in that endeavor.

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That's because they haven't. If they're on shaky legal ground trying to enforce language, they're on even shakier legal ground if they hold up a transfer over something completely unrelated to the license. When RKO was deemed "unfit to hold a license," they were required to sell. That was all the FCC could do.

Yeah, that was sort of my point, I just wasn't sure if they had ever held up a sale like that or not (I can't claim to be familiar with every single case the FCC has ever dealt with by any stretch of the imagination). Still, they've certainly wielded the sword for the whims of the political class before... the cancellation of WLW's STA comes to mind. Such tactics are not below them.

They can force you to sell, they can screw with your facilities, but they can't force you to stay.

Not with the stated intent to do so, no, but they can reject transactions. Were the wrong people making decisions, I can easily envision that power being abused.