**REMARKS OF FCC COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS**

**FCC EN BANC HEARING AND CONFERENCE ON OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO
COMMUNICATIONS FINANCING**

**NEW YORK, NEW YORK, JULY 29, 2008**

Thank you all for coming and thank you to the good folks who made the
Schomburg Center available to us this afternoon---it's a really terrific
venue for this hearing. I'll keep my opening remarks brief because we
have a jam-packed schedule, sterling panelists, an equally sterling
audience, and we all want to hear creative ideas on how to bring folks
together to actually do something about the shameful state of minority
ownership in our communications industries. I'll take just a minute to
try to frame the discussion by noting two areas where I think my
colleagues and I have some agreement and two areas where we may have
some differences.

On the positive side, I think we all agree on the overarching goal of
supporting more minority and female ownership among the communications
industries we regulate---media, of course, and telecommunications more
generally. So the question is not whether to encourage more
ownership---at least I *hope* that's never the question!---but how to
encourage it and by using what combination of private and public
resources. Second, I think we all recognize that access to capital is a
huge barrier to entry and that we need to find ways to bring aspiring
entrepreneurs together with meaningful capital. So I'm looking forward
to learning a lot more today about why those barriers exist and what
options might be available to tear them down.

That's a pretty good start, but let me turn to a couple of serious
fault-lines that arguably exist among us, not just at the Commission,
but more generally, too. The real San Andreas Fault may be our
differences over the impact of media consolidation on minority and
female ownership. Commissioner Adelstein and I have talked about this
many, many times. The issues of consolidated ownership and the plunging
indices of minority ownership are two sides of the same coin. Let's tell
it like it is---the tsunami of media consolidation this country has been
through over the past decade and more has been bad---very bad---for
minority and female ownership. So many credible experts who have looked
at the impact of media consolidation on minority media ownership
patterns---from the FCC and NTIA at the end of the Clinton
Administration to GAO, from think tanks and scholars of the
industry---not to mention Congress and the courts---have called our
attention to the significant negative impact of increased consolidation
on minority and female ownership. Free Press represented the views of
many Americans when, last fall, it released a study concluding that the
best way to increase minority and female ownership would be to roll back
media consolidation.

But as we all know, the Commission has taken a very different approach,
actually pushing for ***more*** media consolidation rather than
attempting to stem the tide. Commissioner Adelstein and I have both
dissented to that approach, most recently last December. We believe that
if media consolidation is driving down the numbers of minority and
female owners, giving the green light to more consolidation is exactly
the wrong thing to do. When we live in a nation that is approaching
one-third minority population, the fact that people of color own three
percent of full-power commercial television stations indicates that
something is seriously askew---economically, socially and, I hazard,
morally.

The second area where I see differences is on what kinds of
remedies---in addition to addressing consolidation---can be developed to
remedy the problem. Let me be very clear here. ***I believe it is
absolutely essential that we work toward race-conscious remedies if we
are serious about reversing the sad state of minority ownership.*** I
also believe that we missed a real opportunity last December when the
majority refused to adopt a definition of "eligible entity" any more
targeted than the "small business" definition that many minority
advocates said would do no good at all. At a minimum, while we work on
crafting a race-conscious definition along the lines I have mentioned,
we should be implementing ***now*** a "full-file review" process used by
number of institutions across the country. In the absence of such
action, we are left with a situation wherein most of whatever new
initiatives we may adopt---and we have adopted some---will generally end
up benefiting companies run by white men.

As always, the excuse is that we lack an adequate record to do more. But
if we lack the data, maybe we should look inward to understand why. We
have had years to gather new data and to update old studies. Why haven't
we commissioned these studies? And if we finally realized in December
that we didn't have an adequate record on which to base new initiatives,
what have we done since? Yes, we solicited comments during this period,
but couldn't we already have cleaned up some of the data problems that
GAO took us to task for.? Have we launched *Adarand* studies to justify
a more targeted approach? You needn't answer---these are rhetorical
questions. We just haven't gotten off the dime the way we need to if we
are going to be really serious about impacting a cancer of this
lethality.

Which brings me back to the hearing today. This "access to capital"
conference was something promised in the FCC Order adopted last
December. As I said before, I'm looking forward to an extremely
constructive and informative program today. And I am impressed at the
caliber of persons who have come here from both the potential investor
and the potential minority owner sides of the equation. This is
encouraging, and what you do here today can make a difference. We can
give the lie right now to some who may think this is just a
"box-checking" exercise and prove instead that it is the start of
something that actually works. This meeting can be either little noted
or long remembered. Holding the conference is good, but change is hard.
So hard. It took us decades to get ourselves into this mess. It will
take more than an afternoon to get ourselves out of it, but this
afternoon could start us down the road.

So let's not treat this conference as the fulfillment of a promise but
rather as a springboard to action. We've got a lot of work to do---at
the FCC, in Congress, and in the private sector. Let's clean up our
data, launch whatever *Adarand* studies are needed, and put in place a
workable definition of eligible entities for those incentives that
already exist. Then let's come up with new incentives---based on some
real strategy and a real national commitment to right the wrongs that so
palpably endure. Let's work for restoration of the tax certificate.
Let's fix our EEO program where we walk so cautiously and so
ineffectively. Let's make sure our new ban on discrimination is closely
monitored by an enforcement team with the charge and the resources to
make certain it actually puts an end to discrimination. And, back to
right now, let's really try to increase the availability of capital to
minority and female entrepreneurs who are waiting to build new
businesses and who, by doing so, will advance not just minority
interests, but the interests of all Americans---the public interest.

We can get these things done if we really commit to it. I'm proud to be
working with all of you as part of this great effort. Thank you.