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Activist Lawyer Plans To Take Aim At Red Zebra Licenses, Renewals For Others Saying 'Redskins' On Air
August 27, 2014 at 1:06 PM (PT)
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GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY Professor and longtime anti-smoking advocate JOHN F. BANZHAF III plans to take aim once again at the WASHINGTON REDSKINS' name, this time possibly challenging the licenses held by REDSKINS owner DANIEL SNYDER's RED ZEBRA BROADCASTING or the licenses of other broadcasters who allow the name to be uttered on their airwaves.
BANZHAF told BROADCASTING AND CABLE/MULTICHANNEL NEWS that he is exploring license challenges and "other legal avenues" to get the name changed, including challenging the license of a CALIFORNIA station (because the state's licensees are up next for renewal), threatening smaller market licenses with renewal challenges if they don't stop using the name on the air, and a list of other options, including an informal FCC conference with broadcasters to pressure them to stop using the word, filing complaints about the name's use with the FCC, petitioning to have "REDSKINS" included under the FCC definition of "profane speech," petitioning for a new FCC rule banning words "highly derogatory, racist, and hateful to ethnic and other groups."

