wfn.org | Parker joins church advocacy team

[powellb@ucc.org]

May 14, 1997
Office of Communication
United Church of Christ                   
Hans Holznagel                            
(216) 736-2214
E-mail:  holznagh@ucc.org
In New York City:
William C. Winslow                              
(212) 870-2137
E-mail:  william.winslow@ecunet.org
On the World Wide Web:                    
http://www.ucc.org                              

Everett C. Parker, pioneering defender of public interest in
broadcasting, rejoins church communication team at age 84

      CLEVELAND -- The retired founder of the Office of
Communication of the United Church of Christ has been retained
by that office to head a newly created team working for the
public interest in broadcasting.
      The Rev. Dr. Everett C. Parker, White Plains, N.Y., will
coordinate the agency's work in broadcast reform, particularly
in the area of equal employment.  He began that work in the
1960s and has been a consultant to various organizations since
he retired in 1983.
      The team also will advise the UCC communication office
in such activities as filing comments before the Federal
Communications Commission, testifying before Congressional
committees and initiating legal action.
      The team includes two Washington-based attorneys who are
longtime friends of the UCC Office of Communication:  Andrew
Schwartzman, executive director of the Media Access Project, a
public interest communications law firm, and Henry Geller,
retired general counsel of the Federal Communications
Commission.  Any of the three may represent the church agency,
but the main spokesperson will continue to be its current
executive director, the Rev. Arthur Lawrence Cribbs Jr.
      "We are delighted to bring Everett Parker's formidable
talents for justice and
equality back into a religious setting," said Cribbs.  "He is
a pioneer who set the standard against which all advocacy work
in the field of communication is measured."
      Under Parker's 30-year leadership as founder and
director of the Office of Communication, the church agency
broke new ground in encouraging the telecommunications
industry to be socially responsible.
      All public interest groups owe the standing that they
enjoy before regulatory agencies to a landmark case brought by
Parker in 1962.  In that case, a Federal Appeals Court vacated
the license of WLBT-TV, Jackson, Miss., for discrimination
against African Americans.
      Parker also petitioned the FCC to introduce equal
employment opportunity rules for the broadcasting industry,
and other federal agencies followed suit.  And he was the only
public advocate filing comments in the court case leading to
the breakup of AT&T in the early 1980s.  Some of his
suggestions were incorporated into the final settlement.
      At a May meeting in Cleveland, Parker, 84, told the
board of directors of the Office of Communication that EEO was
again under siege by the industry.  He noted that the FCC is
proposing weakening the rules.  "The missionary job for us is
to fight to protect EEO rules," Parker said.  "The Office of
Communication is the leader in EEO and the FCC knows we will
go all the way."
      In a sense, Parker has never been far from the work of
the Office of Com-munication.  His immediate successor, Dr.
Beverly J. Chain, regarded him as a mentor and maintained
informal working ties with him.  A media-justice activist in
her own right, Chain kept the office active in advocacy work
until her retirement in 1995.  Cribbs, too, values the
office's heritage as a leader in media advocacy and says the
new arrangment will make Parker's role more regular and
intensive.
      Since retirement, Parker has done advocacy work both as
an individual and as a consultant to the National Council of
Churches.  Most recently, he filed comments with the FCC
opposing a petition by the Radio/Television News Directors
Association to repeal political, editorial and personal attack
rules.
      Earlier, he was a leader in a small group of advocates
who negotiated with Westinghouse Broadcasting to agree to
three hours weekly of educational children's programming as a
condition of its buyout of CBS.   The Office of Communication
was a party in both these matters.
      The 1.5-million-member United Church of Christ, with
national offices in Cleveland, has more than 6,100
congregations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.  It was formed by
the 1957 union of the Congregational Christian Churches and
the Evangelical and Reformed Church.  Its Office of
Communication carries out projects to protect the public
interest and advance affirmative action in telecommunications,
provides educational programs in communication and handles
public relations for the denomination.
#  #  #