Category Archives: Parker Lecture
2014 Parker Lecture Press Release
FCC Chairman Wheeler Highlights Need for Greater Broadband Access nd Diversity in Media Ownership
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler Tuesday pledged to improve the rates of media ownership by women and persons of color during his tenure as chairman, and said he was treating the commission’s open Internet rules as “the most important decision of my term.”
Wheeler’s remarks came as he delivered the 32nd Annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture at the Newseum in Washington.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler
The event, sponsored by the United Church of Christ’s Office of Communication, Inc., was held in partnership with the Newseum Institute this year to mark the 50th anniversary of Rev. Dr. Parker’s ground-breaking petition to the FCC. The petition, filed at the height of the civil rights movement, challenged the television license of WLBT in Jackson, Mississippi, for its failure to cover its African-American viewers. The petition ultimately led the FCC to strip the station owners of their license, and established the right of individual citizens to petition the agency.
“Everett Parker fought for the free flow of information without economic obstruction,” Wheeler said. “.…The history of America is the history of unpopular ideas that came to be recognized as essential truths – from the independence of colonies, to the abolition of slavery, to the simple notion that people should not be judged on the basis of race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. This is why free expression is a value that stands at the center of our work to promote an open Internet.”
The chairman observed that the Internet also represents “an unprecedented expansion of economic opportunity. Networks have always been the backbone of economic expansion, but what is new this time is that an open Internet allows innovative economic activity to reach scope and scale at an unprecedented rate. ”
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Makani Themba’s 2014 Parker Lecture Remarks
Thank you. first, I want to congratulate Kathy Sandoval, what great company to have on this day. thank you for your amazing work over the years. I want to thank my movement family – especially my comrades at the praxis project who share this award with me. Thank you to my sistar Jaribu Hill for being here, for her incredible work as a hunan rights lawyer and culture warrior
Thank you united church of christ office of communication. what an August and incredible institution. thank you for your pioneering leadership, leadership that has always understood that there can be no justice when people are silenced. thank you.
I am deeply, deeply honored to receive this recognition named for one of my personal heroes, Rev. Rverett C. Parker. and in 2014, the 50th anniversary of the challenge filed against the license of WLBT in Jackson, MS? Just amazing! when Rev. Parker, Aaron Henry and Rev. R.l.T. Smith filed that challenge 50 years ago, you could only get involved in FCC matters if you had what they thought was an economic stake or the broadcaster signals created interference. this petition, the years of organizing at its foundation, and the groundbreaking decision that followed will always be a core inspiration to me.
Mississippi is very much on my mind these days.
There have been many milestone anniversaries commemorated this year – 50th anniversary of freedom summer, the civil rights act, the assassination of Medgar Evers and more. I find myself reflecting on the deep, inextricable link between the fight for just access to media and just content grounded in human rights. as Rev. Parker, Rev. Smith and mr. Henry knew back then, racist coverage along with censorship was analogous to shouting fire in a crowded theater. the exclusion of black voices and the promotion of hate had helped to create an environment where black life was cheap.
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Remarks of Tom Wheeler
32nd Annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture October 7, 2014
Thank you Pastor Edmonds for that introduction. Congratulations to Makani Themba and Commissioner Cathy Sandoval for your well-deserved recognition.
It is an honor to follow Reverend Truman Parker – following a Parker is natural for all of us, and that, in part, is what I’d like to address today.
There are multiple reasons why it is a privilege to be here, but I want to highlight two.
First, I grew up in a UCC church. The church is one that in its own words “joins faith with action.” This call to action challenges us to search for social justice. Everett Parker took that challenge to the parochial corners of telecommunications policy.
Secondly, I knew Everett Parker. Not well, but in the late 1970s we both advocated for diversity of voices in media. I was doing it for the cable television industry, which had an obvious interest in overcoming the restrictive rules imposed by the FCC. Rev. Parker did it because diversity of choice and diversity of opportunity was what he was all about.
Today we celebrate Rev. Everett Parker’s service to God and his contribution to our society. When he appealed the FCC’s 1965 decision to grant WLBT’s license renewal in United Church of Christ v. FCC, he not only took on racism, but also he established the landmark precedent that gave ordinary citizens the right, for the first time, to participate in FCC proceedings.
The fact that today all FCC processes are open and that anyone can provide comments on the topics we discuss is a tremendous legacy that we too often take for granted.
Before this decision, the FCC’s position was that only those alleging “economic injury and electrical interference” had the right to challenge its licensing decisions
But Chief Judge, and soon-to-be Chief Justice, Warren Burger wrote a powerful opinion that said that the public played an important role as “private attorneys general” in helping the FCC enforce the public interest standard.
I have often said that the networks that connect us are the forces that define us – not just our commerce, but also our culture and individual lives. Everett Parker gave us all a voice in the policy related to that defining force.
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Parker Lecture 2014 Honorees Announced
For immediate release
April 29, 2014
FCC CHAIRMAN WHEELER TO DELIVER 32nd ANNUAL EVERETT C. PARKER LECTURE;
THEMBA, SANDOVAL TO BE HONORED
Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will deliver the 32nd annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture and Makani Themba and Catherine J.K. Sandoval will be honored at the 2014 Parker Lecture and Breakfast. The event, organized by the United Church of Christ’s media justice ministry, the Office of Communication, Inc., will be held at 8 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., in partnership with the Newseum Institute. The program will be live streamed at www.newseum.org.
Wheeler was appointed by President Barack Obama and became the 31st chairman of the FCC on Nov. 4, 2013. For more than three decades, he has been involved with new telecommunications networks and services, experiencing the revolution in telecommunications as a policy expert, an advocate and a businessman. He is the only person to be selected to both the Cable Television Hall of Fame and The Wireless Hall of Fame, a fact that President Obama joked made him “The Bo Jackson of Telecom.” An avid student of history, Wheeler is the author of Take Command: Leadership Lessons of the Civil War and Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War. Wheeler is a former trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a former board member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and the former chairman and president of the Foundation for the National Archives.
Themba, executive director of The Praxis Project, will receive the Everett C. Parker Award, given in recognition of an individual whose work embodies the principles and values of the public interest in telecommunications and the media. Themba helped to pioneer the developing field of justice communications, first as media director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Los Angeles and then as a media strategist supporting a range of progressive causes. At SCLC-LA, she first engaged in media policy work to support community engagement around station licensing. During her tenure as director of the Center for Media and Policy Analysis at The Marin Institute, Themba began advancing media advocacy as a mainstream practice in public health. She is co-author of Media Advocacy for Public Health: Power for Prevention, Talking the Walk: Communications Guide for Racial Justice and Fair Game: A Strategy Guide for Racial Justice Communications in the Obama Era.
Sandoval, a Commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) since 2011, will receive the Donald H. McGannon Award, given in recognition of special contributions in advancing the roles of women and people of color in the media. Sandoval, the first Latino to serve as a commissioner at the CPUC, also serves as a co-vice-chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Telecommunications Committee and as policy chair of the Federal Communications Commission’s Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Telecommunications Services. Sandoval, the first Latina to win a Rhodes scholarship, directed the FCC’s Office of Communications Business Opportunities during the Clinton Administration and is a tenured faculty member of the Santa Clara University School of Law. Sandoval authored and co-authored a number of important FCC filings and articles addressing inclusion in communications policy and published a major study on commercial radio ownership by people of color. As a CPUC commissioner she helped bring about the first telephone service available to the Yurok nation in Northern California.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Rev. Dr. Everett C. Parker’s petition to the FCC, which challenged the broadcasting license of WLBT-TV in Jackson, Miss., for its failure to serve the public interest, most notably in its coverage of that city’s African-American residents. Parker’s petition ultimately established the right of individuals to intervene in matters before the FCC.
This year’s lecture, in the Newseum’s Knight Conference Center, will be held in conjunction with the Newseum’s three-year exhibit “Civil Rights at 50,” chronicling major developments in the civil rights movement from 1963 to 1965 through news media reports.
The Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture was created in 1982 to recognize the Rev. Dr. Parker, founder of OC, Inc., and his pioneering work as an advocate for the public’s rights in broadcasting. The event is the only lecture in the country to examine telecommunications in the digital age from an ethical perspective. Past speakers have included network presidents, Congressional leaders, and FCC chairs and commissioners, as well as academics, cable and telephone executives and journalists. More information is available at www.uccmediajustice.org/parker.
The Cleveland-based United Church of Christ, a Protestant denomination with more than 1 million members and nearly 5,200 local congregations nationwide, recognizes the unique power of the media to shape public understanding and thus society as a whole. For this reason, the UCC’s OC, Inc. has worked since its founding in 1959 to create just and equitable media structures that give a meaningful voice to diverse peoples, cultures and ideas.
The Newseum Institute provides a forum for educational programs and thought-leadership initiatives, as well as educational materials, addressing the five freedoms of the First Amendment: speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition. The Newseum’s 250,000-square-foot museum in downtown Washington, D.C., offers visitors a state-of-the-art experience that blends news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.
United Church of Christ, Office of Communication, Inc.
Cheryl A. Leanza, media contact
202-904-2168
cleanza@alhmail.com
Jonathan Thompson, manager of media relations
United Church of Christ
Emily Schappacher
(216) 736-2177
schappachere@ucc.org