Abuse of Power
[Reprinted from Issues & Views Summer/Fall 1999]
Here's what can happen when a politically powerful interest group manages to
achieve an almost quasi-governmental status and boldly acts as if it were an
extension of the federal government itself. Although the NAACP claims that its
sacred task is to ferret out "unfairness" and bring about
"social justice," very often this organization simply acts as a tool
for a consortium of well-heeled blacks, who have their eyes on someone else's
property. Take the case of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
 The Lutheran Church held licenses from the Federal Communications
Commission for two radio stations in Clayton, Missouri--KFUO-AM and KFUO-FM.
These stations were operated as non-commercial religious formats. The FM
station broadcast classical music with a religious orientation and the AM
station's broadcasts were strictly religious. Both stations were located on the
campus of the church's Concordia Seminary.
KFUO-AM has been broadcasting since 1925. Some people may still remember the
very successful "The Lutheran Hour" program, that was syndicated
nationally. In 1948, KFUO obtained an FCC license for an FM station, one of the
first in the country. Years later, the FM station was upgraded to 100,000
watts, giving it a wide broadcast outreach, and making it a valuable asset. The
church's public mission for the stations was described from the beginning as,
"dedicated to the task of carrying out in their way the Great Commission
which Christ gave to His church, to preach the Gospel to every creature and to
nurture and serve the people in a variety of ways."
Right through the 1980s, KFUO had a harmonious relationship and an
unblemished record with the FCC. But beginning in the 1990s, the church found
its ownership of the stations in jeopardy, as well as the religious freedom it
had taken for granted. Little did church officials know that the NAACP would
soon be on their case. In January, 1990, the NAACP filed a petition with the
FCC to deny KFUO's renewal of its two broadcast licenses. The tactic used to
commandeer the stations was the usual one. It charged KFUO with not having a
"meaningful Affirmative Action" program, since the stations did not
employ the requisite quota of blacks, and challenged the church's right to
recruit station personnel from its seminary graduates and members of the
Lutheran Church.
The NAACP built its case against KFUO by claiming that the stations had no
right to require of its employees either a knowledge of classical music or
"religious knowledge and experience" of its particular faith, since
blacks would rarely possess such backgrounds. The NAACP proved clever in its
choice of victim, since the Lutheran denomination, due to its historical
origins, tends to be predominantly white. It was, no doubt, for this reason
that the KFUO stations were targeted as most vulnerable. In this brave new
world of reverse discrimination, groups like the NAACP can sic government
agencies on unsuspecting American citizens and even invent the standards by
which their compliance is measured. To the NAACP, this case must have looked
like a sure bet for getting the FCC licenses away from their white owners and
into the hands of blacks.
And so the years of litigation ensued, with the burden put on KFUO to prove
that it did not go out of its way to deny employment to blacks. The stations'
staffs now had to turn their efforts to digging out and assembling the
mountains of data demanded, eventually delivering over 4,000 pages of documents
to the FCC. Jocelyn King, a black member of KFUO's board, called these years
"a supreme test."
Over the next eight years, there were consecutive decisions from the FCC,
its Review Board, and its Administrative Law Judge. In each instance, the
appeal to the next higher level was initiated by the NAACP. The church also
appealed those rulings to protect its interests and good name.
Along the way, the NAACP revealed its true agenda when it offered to settle
the case, if the church would turn over its powerful FM station to the NAACP's
black constituency. Since Affirmative Action laws permit only minorities the
right to purchase media properties below the market rate, or at what is
euphemistically called "distress sale" prices, the church would have
lost a great deal of money if it had agreed to sell--all this on the heels of
the hundreds of thousands of dollars the church had already lost during years
of litigation.
The church rejected the proposal, but then another plan for settlement was
put forth. Earlier, the church had applied for a license for a small radio
station, KSLH-FM, in St. Louis. With the full cognizance of the FCC, the church
was now "encouraged" by the NAACP to buy this third station for $1
million, which it should then transfer over to a group of black
broadcasters--for free. Also, as part of the deal, the church would be expected
to upgrade the new facility at its own expense, and to provide operating
expenses for a set period of years. No episode of wheeling and dealing could
better demonstrate the abusive character of Affirmative Action laws. The church
rejected this outrageous deal, only to have the FCC deny its license request
for the new station.
Finally, in April 1998, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the
Lutheran Church and their two KFUO radio stations, stating that it "found
no evidence that the Church intentionally discriminated against
minorities." The ruling also claimed that denying renewal of licenses
"would be an inappropriate sanction." The court rejected the idea
that the FCC's numerous minority "outreach" requirements differ in
legal effect from mandated racial preferences, and it reasoned that it is
unconstitutional for the government to "take account of racially based
differences" in programming tastes, "much less encourage them."
The church's sin was not that it had no black employees, but that it had
failed to document its hiring practices according to the FCC's Affirmative
Action guidelines. In commenting on the case, William Kennard, the Chairman of
the FCC, expressed his "disappointment" that the court "held
unconstitutional the FCC's rules requiring broadcasters to cast a wide net in
their recruitment efforts."
The church's nightmare more or less came to an end. But, of course, it never
should have been put through the legal wringer over the employment of blacks in
the first place--no more than a prominent black church that might have an
affiliated seminary and a radio station should be forced to go outside its
ranks to employ whites. In such circumstances, a black church, by giving
employment and professional training to its members, would be praised and
applauded for conceiving such practical self-help strategies.
The specifics of this case prove that what the NAACP wants, it doesn't
always get, but it sure can put its victims to enormous costs in money, energy
and exasperation, even when it fails.
For more information, contact: KFUO, 85 Founders Lane, St. Louis, MO 63105;
(314) 725-3030; http://www.kfuo.org.
Copyright 2001 © Issues & Views
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