Those informal mechanisms often give the advantage to non-minorities. In the meantime, attacks on affirmative action have reduced FCC pressure for minority hiring. FCC hiring requirements for broadcasters were the subject of a court challenge, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod v. FCC . After the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1998 that certain aspects of the commission's previous EEO requirements were unconstitutional, the FCC suspended the filing of certain EEO forms by broadcasters while it drafted new recruitment guidelines. We had intended all along to not have a preference for anyone.
Broad outreach is the primary goal of the program now.
Training grants have disappeared Targeted training assistance had already fallen by the wayside as national politics moved to the right. From the mid-'70s until about 1989, CPB funded training grants for women and minorities that many pubcasting lifers credited for advancing them through the system. One such grant recipient, Jacyln Sallee, a Native American and president of public radio licensee Koahnic Broadcast Corp., regrets that the grants are no longer available. Otherwise, we'll have no next generation of people who are skilled. Koahnic operates not just KNBA in Anchorage, Alaska, but also a national broadcast training center for Native Americans.