NRB and Groups Opposing EEO Order Call for Stay in Data Collection
The FCC should stay the collection of broadcast workforce diversity data using Form 395-B until legal challenges against the FCC’s equal employment opportunity order are resolved, a joint request for stay posted Friday in docket 98-204 said. The National Religious…
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Broadcasters, the American Family Association, and the Texas Association of Broadcasters made the request. The three groups have challenged the EEO order in court (see 2405130041), arguing that it violates the First Amendment by compelling controversial speech and the Fifth Amendment by “unlawfully pressuring broadcasters to engage in race- and sex-conscious employment practices.” The associations “will incur unrecoverable costs” by “spending time and resources to categorize their employees by race and sex,” and having to “endure and respond to the trolling and harassment, online and elsewhere, the publication of the data will bring,” the joint filing said. “By contrast, no party would be substantially harmed by a stay,” the groups said. “The FCC has not collected or published Form 395-B data for over two decades,” making it “implausible third parties would be substantially harmed by maintaining the status quo,” the joint filing said.