Remarks of Commissioner Robert M. McDowell 
Minority Media & Telecommunications Council
Monday, July 20, 2009
The Westin Grand Hotel
Washington, D.C.
As prepared for delivery
Thank you, David, for your kind words – and I thank everyone at MMTC for giving me 
the honor, and the pleasure, of saying a few words about my friend and colleague Mike Copps.  
I’m delivering what are supposed to be “introductory” remarks, but Mike needs no introduction 
to most of you in this room.  Since he began serving on the Commission in May of 2001, he has 
been an indefatigable champion of diversity in general and the promotion of minority ownership 
of communications companies in particular.  MMTC has made a wise choice in singling him out 
for this year’s Everett C. Parker Award for his distinguished service during his many years in 
government, and for his commitment to diversity and inclusion in the media and telecom 
industries.
Mike’s passion – and wit – on the subject certainly have made for many memorable 
moments during Commission meetings.  Mike and I may not always agree on policy issues and 
the agency’s legal authority on some matters, but I admire his talent in expressing his views.  
Who else would have analogized our December 2007 media ownership decision as “another big, 
shiny present for the favored few who already hold an FCC license – and a lump of coal” for 
everyone else?  Or who else could have said in his statement in the Comcast/BitTorrent order 
that the FCC needed to “make clear that the Commission is not having a one-night stand with net 
neutrality, but an affair of the heart and a commitment for life.”  In short, I can admire a guy who 
gives good sound bites.
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Mike and I actually have a lot in common.  We’re sort of a regulatory odd couple:  he is a 
Democrat appointed by George W. Bush and I am a Republican appointed by Barack Obama.  I 
don’t know if that means we are bipartisan or simply confused.  But, in all seriousness, I asked 
my law clerks to analyze my voting record and compare it against my colleagues’.  It ends up 
that we voted the same way 89.72% of the time.  In other words, nine out of ten of my votes 
were with Mike.  If this keeps up, we will ruin each other’s reputations.
But promotion of greater diversity is one important goal that we share, even if we 
sometimes favor different means of achieving it.  Mike’s commitment to that objective has been 
manifest in ways beyond mere public speeches.  His recent leadership of the DTV transition has 
been deservedly praised, for example, but not many people outside the Commission may have 
recognized that a major part of his focus was on ensuring that diverse needs on the receiving end 
of the new digital technology were met.  Under Mike, the agency deployed hundreds of staffers 
and engaged thousands of contractors to provide hands-on help to the TV viewers most in need 
of assistance, including the elderly, the disabled, and low-income and minority households.  This 
was another way of advancing the FCC’s diversity goal in the media space – for, obviously, that 
objective can only be achieved when content actually reaches the diverse American audience.  
During his Acting Chairmanship, Mike also devoted what little time he could spare from 
DTV and broadband issues to reconstitute and reinvigorate the Commission’s Advisory 
Committee for Diversity in the Digital Age – several members of which are with us in the room 
tonight.  Tapping members for such a committee is one thing, but charging them with specific 
tasks is another, more serious sign of commitment.  Mike directed the Committee to grapple with 
the thorny constitutional issues that surround race-conscious minority ownership rules, and I 
look forward to reviewing the Committee’s analysis and recommendations before we must tackle 
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the next media ownership review.  I have especially enjoyed reading all of the online conspiracy 
theories surrounding the new Diversity Committee.
In conclusion, I congratulate Mike for joining the select ranks of Everett Parker Award 
winners, and I congratulate MMTC for its wisdom in choosing him.  Thank you again for 
inviting me here today, and I am happy to turn the podium back to David for the award 
presentation.