Top Christian broadcaster fighting government demand for ‘public shaming rule’

A fight involving a Christian broadcaster based in Medford, Oregon, reaching out via radio and television, holds the potential now for a significant ruling that federal bureaucracies are supposed to do what Congress tells them to do – not more.

It is theDove Radio & Television that is contesting demands by the Federal Communications Commission that it start monitoring, recording, reporting and even publicizing the makeup of its employees, their race and sex.

It’s a type of fight that has come up before, and will come up again: bureaucrats decide that Congress has given them AN authority so they try to impose requirements that are not necessarily germane to that task.

The government right now is trying to delay the case at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because other plaintiffs also have raised their concerns, but it is theDove case that would, when and if it is decided, go further.

Perry Atkinson, president and CEO of the broadcaster, told WND that his organization, unlike many avenues for communication in 2024 America, is highly regulated.

The FCC had proposed, some time back, to monitor and record the makeup of staffs, but had delayed its plan. Now it’s on the move again..

Atkinson explained that making public the “diversity, equity and inclusion” factors about his employees could be used by detractors to create problems for the broadcaster, including when periodic license renewals are at issue.

It would end up being a “controlled speech” agenda, as the station would be required to constantly monitor all comments and issues to make sure nothing controversial would be expressed.

Or even exist.

Such as what if a Christian broadcaster would hire workers who are … Christian?

He explained his hiring would be managed by “a quota” system should the rule advance.

Others who have brought similar concerns include the National Religious Broadcasters, the AFA Family Association and the Texas Association of Broadcasters, and those disputes now are pending before the 5th Circuit.

Atkinson explained his organization’s contentions go one step further than objecting to the rule by questioning whether the FCC has the authority, without congressional approval, to make such demands.

It’s a common theme of federal bureaucracies to establish requirements and issue demands even if such authority from Congress is not clear.

For instance, the feds tried to ban an Idaho couple from building on their residential lot because its bureaucrats claimed it was a wetlands even though it was a typical suburban lot and not a waterway.

The Supreme Court eventually blocked that agenda.

Now it is the Pacific Legal Foundation, long an advocate for private property rights, that is assisting in the broadcaster’s fight.

Senior attorney Oliver Dunford told WND the FCC wanted, then halted, collection of millions of datapoints of demographics about broadcast company employees.

Then it came back.

The case argues that the FCC doesn’t have the authority to demand that information, then publish it and make it available.

The case raises potential violations of equal protection and First Amendment issues under the Constitution.

He explained the actual timing of the case, and any decision, isn’t firm because of the other consolidated cases, and the fact they they are have been fully briefed, while the Dove case is just starting its appeals court run.

The origins of equal opportunity employment ideologies at the FCC started in 1970, and courts twice have struck specifics.

The FCC’s later iteration from Congress regarded cable outlets, and didn’t mention radio.

Complicating the fight is that broadcasters operate on public frequencies, much like ski areas lease public lands to stage their ski slopes, and the requirement is that those operations be for the public good.

That easily could apply to broadcasting itself, but that still would not necessarily create an authority to demand quotas in hiring and such.

The lawyer said, “Congress can set policy. That’s fine. Agencies are supposed to be limited to the policies set forth in the statutes. I do think this is an example of an agency trying to make policy or to extend policy that Congress has not expressly authorized.”

Pacific Legal, at one point, characterized the FCC’s plan as a “public shaming rule.”

TheDove now operates nearly three dozen faith-based radio and television stations, cable channels and more.

While the FCC claims its demands are for equal employment opportunity reporting, the EEOC already does that.

The legal team explained, “In reality, the FCC rule is a thinly veiled attempt to do indirectly what it may not do directly: pressure stations into race- and sex-conscious hiring practices.”

The lawyers explained, “Besides being a blatant end-run around the Equal Protection Clause, the rule also violates the nondelegation doctrine. The Communications Act of 1934 gave the FCC authority to regulate broadcasting, not to enforce what amounts to race and gender quotas.”