Frank Washington: FCC Should Weigh 'Paucity' of Asian-Owned Media in Standard/Tegna

“Given the paucity of minority-owned media,” the Asian-American ownership of would-be Tegna-buyer Standard General should “play an appropriate role in the outcome” of the FCC’s review of the deal, said Crossings TV CEO Frank Washington in a letter to the agency posted in docket 22-162. Standard's founder Soohyung Kim would head up the board of the combined company. “There are no Asian American owned networks or media holdings of significant size,” said Washington, a former FCC deputy bureau chief who was involved in the minority tax certificate’s creation and the Viacom deal that led to Congress repealing the program. “There was a time when the FCC recognized the importance of this to the programming, societal and political landscape of this country,” he said in the letter: “Given the focus in opposing comments on Apollo’s role in this, why does this seem to always be a factor when a minority is involved?” (see 2207260058).