Upon the issuance of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit’s decision in Prometheus Radio Project v. Federal Communications Commission, Cheryl Leanza, policy advisor for UCC OC Inc. said:

Since 2004 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has been reviewing the FCC’s media ownership rules—pressing again and again for FCC action to accompany the FCC’s words in support of increasing media ownership diversity. 

The Third Circuit has confirmed that the time for delay is over.  The FCC has promised studies on minority and female ownership for more than two decades and today the court has concluded, if the FCC “needs more data” to find a definition that will improve minority ownership, “it must get it.” 

The United Church of Christ’s media justice ministry, OC Inc., looks forward to sitting down with the FCC to develop a timeline within the court-ordered 60-day timeframe to make sure that the long-awaited studies are undertaken.

The Rev. Traci Blackmon, acting executive minister of the United Church of Christ’s Justice and Witness Ministries, will deliver the 34rd annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture. The event, organized by the UCC’s media justice ministry, the Office of Communication, Inc., will be held at 8 a.m. EST on Thursday October 13 at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, DC.

Blackmon came to national attention in the fall of 2014 as part of the pastoral presence in Ferguson, Mo., working to quell months of civil unrest following the fatal police shooting of black teenager Michael Brown in August of that year. Blackmon, then senior pastor of Christ the King United Church of Christ in Florissant, Mo., served on Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon’s Ferguson Commission, which studied the underlying causes of the racial conflicts in that city and made recommendations on how to address them.

Blackmon assumed her current position with the UCC’s national setting on January 1, 2016. Later that month, President Barack Obama appointed her to his 15-member Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She was one of the black leaders recognized in 2015 by being named to Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 list.

Blackmon was ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and has more than 30 years of experience in the health care industry, first as a registered nurse and later as coordinator of health, mind, body and spirit for BJC HealthCare, one of the country’s largest nonprofit health care organizations. She is the founder of the Sista SOS Summit, an intergenerational symposium designed to assist women toward spiritual and sexual wholeness, and is co-founder of “When Women Gather. . . ,” a monthly ecumenical gathering committed to the spiritual growth and development of women.

Rev. Blackmon expressed her pleasure at being asked to offer this year’s lecture, stating, “the media—whether on television or online—play a critical role in our ability to spread God’s word and work together for social justice,” she said. “I’m looking forward to exploring the intersections between a just media and a just world.”

The Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture was created in 1982 to recognize the late 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.

The Cleveland-based United Church of Christ, a Protestant denomination with nearly 1 million members and more than 5,000 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. 

United Church of Christ, Office of Communication, Inc.

Cheryl A. Leanza, media contact