Second Petitioner Drops Challenge to Redskins Name

The challenges to broadcasters over the use of the term Redskins for the team whose name is, in fact, Redskins, are disappearing.

A second petitioner has withdrawn a challenge to Fox-owned KTTV Los Angeles over use of the Redskins name for the Washington football team.

According to a copy of the document filed with the FCC, Timothy Harjo has asked the FCC to discontinue the proceeding without any further action. He was one of three Native Americans to join legal analyst John Banzhaf on challenging broadcast stations over use of the term, which they argued was profane and perhaps hate speech.

That followed a similar move by Native American radio host Larry Smith Tuesday to drop his petition.

Both of those moves followed the FCC's rejection of Banzhaf's petition to deny the renewal of Redskins owner Dan Snyder's radio station, WWXX-FM Washington, over the same issue, saying "Redskins" did not meet the legal definition of profanity and it had no authority over hate speech unless it was defined as such by the courts.

Banzhaf declined to weigh in. "I can not comment at this time," he said.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.