Content diversity and the FCC'S minority and gender licensing policies

All government‐sponsored affirmative action programs raise questions of equal protection under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The FCC's minority and gender licensing preference policies — predicated on the goal of maximizing broadcast content diversity, rather than the remedying of past discrimination — also generate a number of First Amendment issues. This article details the genesis of the policies and their approval by the US Supreme Court, and examines the continuing debate over the FCC's conclusion that minorities and women have unique viewpoints, that race and gender significantly inform programming decisions, and that market forces are unable to provide sufficient program diversity.