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Women’s Media Foundation (and a contributing editor for Newsweek), “This is aprofession that has to learn a lot about bringing more voices to the table and creatingmore opportunities” (“Women’s role…” 2002, p. 45).EEO Developments in 2002In January 2001 the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down, for a second timesince 1998, the Federal Communications Commission rules regarding EqualEmployment Opportunity guidelines for broadcasters and cable operators. The courtobjections were related to the data-collection requirements promulgated by theCommission. The circuit court ruled that the FCC plan to review an operator’s pool ofapplicants, and to order recruiting changes if an appropriate demographic mix was notevident, put pressure on employers by creating an illegal, de facto.As 2001 came to a close, the FCC unveiled its new proposal, that would requirebroadcasters and cable systems to engage in minority and gender recruiting efforts(McConnell, 2001), prompting the NAB to decide at its 2002 annual winter meetingto form a committee to draft a “comprehensive EEO proposal” that would be presentedto the FCC (“NAB to work…” 2002). However, by April, 2002 a coalition of 45organizations, including the National Bar Association, the National Council ofChurches, civil-rights groups, and minority journalist organizations had alreadyendorsed most aspects of the FCC’s proposal (“FCC EEO proposal…” 2002). Thecoalition, sponsored by the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, and“represented ‘the largest and broadest coalition of nonprofit organizations’ ever to filecomments in an FCC rule-making proceeding” urged the FCC to make sure that anynew rules contained meaningful EEO regulations (“Groups deluge FCC…” 2002, p.6). The coalition called on the Commission to write even more restrictive languagerelated to requirements that top management be responsible for implementation of therules. Comments also encouraged the FCC to allow independent, nonprofit websitesto serve as a medium for companies to communicate job openings, but not to allowcompanies to rely on word-of-mouth for circulating job vacancies (“FCC EEOproposal…” 2002). The FCC held en banc hearings on the proposed new rules duringJune (“FCC plans…” 2002).In November 2002 the Commission formally adopted its latest version of EEOprocedures. By effectively adopting just those provisions of “Option A” of its old rule,that had gained the approval of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the FCC hoped toavoid a fourth EEO defeat in court (Martin, 2003). The old “Option A” included arequirement for media companies to keep and submit detailed annual records to theCommission. This provision drew criticism from the NAB, that president Eddie Frittssaid “…has long been concerned with rules that create undue paperwork burdens,particularly on small-market broadcasters” (cited in “FCC sets new…” 2002, p. 44).Specifically, the new rules retain “Option A” by requiring licensees to widelydisseminate notices of all full-time (30 hours or more) job vacancies (except for rareemergency hires), to provide notices of openings to groups requesting such listings, andto participate in a specific number of recruitment activities every two years.v In termsof record keeping, broadcasters and cable operators must keep detailed records of allfull-time vacancies, the recruitment sources used for each, copies of all employment adsand announcements, documentation to show good-faith participation in recruitingactivities. Stations must also record the total number of candidates interviewed, and22Feedback April 2003 (Vol. 44, No. 2)