Discrimination in TV

Press, 30 August 1977, Page 16

Discrimination in TV

NZPA Washington The United States Commission of Cival Rights, finding widespread sexual and racial discrimination in the television industry, has recommended that Congress give the Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C.) power to regulate equal-employment practices at the networks.

While the F.C.C. can now regulate local stations, it has no authority to license and regulate the networks. The commission’s findings and recommendations were contained in a 181-page report, “Window Dressing on the set: Women and Minorities in Television.” It also recommended that the- F.C.C. “conduct an in-

quiry and proposed rulemaking on the protrayal of minorities and women in commercial and public television drama.” In television drama, according to the report, white males dominated the screen and appeared in 65.3 per cent of all major and minor roles while white females had 23.8 per cent of all roles, many of which were comic. Minorities continued to appear primarily in ethnic settings or as tokens in allwhite shows with 8.6 per cent of the roles being played by non-white females, the report said.