Former FCC Chair Reed Hundt, who is leading an effort by former FCC officials and others to get Redskins owner Dan Snyder to change the name of the team, had asked FCC commissioners to speak out. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel has said she knew the name was offensive to a number of people and had concerns herself, but Wheeler had yet to weigh in--the other commissioners have declined comment.
"I don't use the term personally and I think it is offensive and derogatory," Wheeler told B&C/Multichannel News. "I am a Civil War buff," he pointed out, "and there were a lot of terms that were appropriate at that time that aren't appropriate any more."
Hundt has said he thinks the term could be indecent by FCC standards or its use could disqualify Snyder's under character qualifications for ownership.
George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf has gone further, challenging the license of Snyder's WWXX-FM Washington ESPN 980 over the broadcast of the name "Redskins," arguing that it could be indecent, or borderline obscene, or possibly hate speech, and in any event its use is not in the public interest, which broadcasters must serve as the condition of their license.
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If the name was so offensive, why did Mr. Wheeler wait until now to speak about it? This team has been around for how many decades and we're just now deciding that we're offended? We need to get on the bandwagon and plan our next offensive campaign. During our lives, we're all going to be offended by something, sometime, somewhere, somehow. This message is offensive is as well.
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