Washington Redskins

Sinclair-owned ABC affiliate WJLA Washington (DMA 7) announced today it will broadcast its planned third live virtual town hall on race relations with a conversation on the historic announcement to […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a dozen Native American leaders and organizations sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday calling for the league to force Washington Redskins […]

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s ABC affiliate WJLA Washington (DMA 7) reached a multi-year agreement to carry the Washington Redskins’ Monday Night Football games. In 2016, ABC7 will air two Washington Redskins’ Monday Night Football games […]

The FCC, in an order released Thursday, dismissed a request to deny the license renewal of a Virginia radio station that broadcast the word “Redskins.” John Banzhaf III and others said use of the name for the Washington team during NFL games was objectionable because it’s a “derogatory racial and ethnic slur” against American Indians.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai called on the agency to dismiss petitions that would prevent broadcasters from using the Washington Redskins team name on the air. He said the move would squelch debate and burden legitimate news reporting.

Three Native Americans have filed a petition with the FCC to protest the license renewal of  Fox-owned KTTV Los Angeles over the use of the word Redskins. KTTV broadcasts the NFL’s National Football Conference. The Washington Redskins play in the NFC Eastern Division.

Three more petitions — from people involved with a Native American radio program — have been filed at the FCC against a radio station owned by Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder for the use of the team’s name on air. The paperwork follows the efforts of a George Washington University professor to revoke WWXX-FM’s broadcast license.

Regardless of which side of the controversy you’re on, RTDNA sees this latest issue as a simple matter of free speech—and one in which the government has no role. If the FCC bans this term, what’s next? Will there be other words determined as not fit for current social conventions? And do we want those decisions made by a government bureaucracy? We think not.

A law professor has challenged the use of the name on broadcast television, saying it violates FCC rules against indecent content. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler says that the commission “will be dealing with that issue on the merits, and we’ll be responding accordingly.”

Law professor John F. Banzhaf III has filed a petition at the FCC calling on it to deny license renewal for Washington Redskins-owned WWXX-FM, because, he claims, the word “Redskins” is — in the eyes of both American Indians and non-Indians — an offensive ethnic slur and that its use “constitutes hate speech” and might cause “hate crimes against Indians.”

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS lead analyst Phil Simms plans to try to avoid saying “Redskins” during Washington’s nationally televised game against the New York Giants. The network airs the […]

Add FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to the list of people and organizations that think the name Redskins for Washington’s football team is “offensive and derogatory.” But while he finds the name offensive, he stopped short of calling for FCC action.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A group campaigning for the Washington Redskins to change their name is sending a letter to broadcasters requesting that Redskins not be uttered on the public airwaves. The […]

The Washington Post editorial board said Friday it will stop using the word “Redskins” when referring to Washington’s football team, joining a growing list of other commentators who have renounced the term because they believe it disparages Native Americans. The editorial board is separate from the newsgathering side of the organization, which executive editor Marty Baron said will continue to use the team’s moniker.

CBS is allowing its announcers to decide on their own whether to call the team the Redskins. So is Fox, which handles the NFC and will televise most of Washington’s games. Both Phil Simms at CBS and NBC’s Tony Dungy say they’ll likely refer to the team as just “Washington.”

CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said Thursday he hasn’t told on-air talent such as Jim Nantz and Phil Simms what to say regarding the controversy surrounding the Redskins’ name. “We don’t tell our announcers what to say about any topic,” McManus told the summer TV critics’ meeting.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the Washington Redskins trademark registration, calling the football team’s name “disparaging to Native Americans.” The ruling does not mean that the Redskins have to change the name of the team. It does affect whether the team and the NFL can make money from merchandising because it limits the team’s legal options when others use the logos and the name on T shirts, sweatshirts, beer glasses and license plate holders.

The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation aired a 60-second ad opposing the name of the NFL team in seven major markets during Game 3 of the NBA Finals on ABC.

Area media outlets say they face coverage limitations not posed to organizations that pay to be team “partners.”

The Oneida Indian Nation learned Friday that the radio ad it had scheduled to run in Washington this past weekend as part of its national “Change the Mascot” campaign, will not air. A representative of CBS Radio Washington cited increased discussion around the name as the reason for pulling the ad from two of its stations, WJFK and WPGC.

In a Washington Post op-ed, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt calls on broadcasters to join him and others in demanding that the Washington Redskins change their name — a racial epithet that broadcasters would not use in any other context. “If broadcasters follow their own tradition, they will insist that [owner Dan] Snyder no longer put them in the intolerable position of using a derogatory term to describe his team. So, too, should the FCC applaud broadcasters for pursuing the name change.”