European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 13, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns Carl Rowan the stars and stripes thursday August 13,1987 blackness desperately needs redefinition rarely during my 39 years As a journalist have i by in As proud As 1 am now to report that my Blac colleagues in the profession have responded magnificently to my Call to inspire Black youngsters to icam to speak and write the English language. Every Black to in Hor person correspondent. To or newspaper exec i. It Middle Grade reporter or Edi Tor whom i have been Able to Contact has said Tel me what i must  and the Media superstars have made in Clear Hal they will give not just their Money but their presence at schools to hand out $4000 priz Eslo High schooners who believe that there is a pot of Gold at the end of a Well written article As Well As in the end zone of a football Field. We Are going to try to convince Black teen agers thai becoming a marvelous user of the language of William Shakespeare Bryant Gumbel and Bill Cosby has Noth ing to do with proving either that you Are Black or you want to be White. We want youngsters to under stand that speaking and writing Well Only proves Hal you know where the routes to Success inc levers of Power Are in this country. Washington ., school superintendent fio Relta Mekenzie and i have met and agreed on a pro Gram called project excellence. The monies collected for project excellence and there will be a lot will go into the tax exempt  James Kilpatrick Public school foundation. None of the Money will Gofur salaries of any other kind of  a committee composed of three or four journalists Ami a school administrator an English teacher and a renowned teacher of Public speaking will select for pries annually a few youngsters who have excelled As writers and speakers an equal number of youngsters who have made the greatest Progress in learning to write and speak High achieving Black High schooners from suburban counties As Well As the District of Columbia. We will be Able to Honor children from All school jurisdictions because leaders of a couple of foundations and wealthy individuals have telephoned me today we d like o give Money to this  supt. Mckenzie says of project excellence today too Many Young people believe hat he obstacles to rewarding futures loom too Large and the journey May appear to Lead nowhere. One of our most important missions is to show our children that the trek is Worth he Afton. This scholarship Campaign can help to sound the Call. By giving this support 10 achieving students Pecan begin to convey to All children thai their adults Are behind them with both encouraging words and substantive  some  experts on blackness argue that the resistance of Black teen agers to Stan Dard English is a Way of i sin Lishing themselves As  there is the problem thai project excellence is to address. Kids Olio associate blackness with being inarticulate being unable to really read and write being jobless and hopeless arc in desperate need of new definitions of  deprived Black children do not need the destructive nonsense of adults White or Black telling them that incompetence can become a Symbol of Rackl Pride. Since no newspaper Black owned or while owned no radio or television station no Magazine or advertising Agency Wil pay anyone to dispense Black English where is Black English useful valuable even Beautiful As a few delude a of Black children Are saying some argue that we Black journalists can t change a thing because Only the families of Black kid and thei neighbors in their impoverished neighbourhoods can get to , i Don t believe that. Nor does mrs. Mckinzie. Nor do my colleagues who arc so prominent in journal ism in he nation s capital. We Are going to prove that we can make a difference and that once we do we Are going to provoke or shame proud Black journalists in other cities to Rescue millions of Black teen Ager fro the peer group trap of defeatism. To  Surri Kew fecs fairness doctrine we con do without the Federal communications commission struck a blow for Freedom Las week when in repudiated its Long standing fairness doctrine but the blow was a muffled blow and its Impact ii highly Uncertain. If Congress does not restore the doctrine the supreme court eventually May. Meanwhile let me raise my own muffled cry of Hooray for the  s wrong with a Little More Freedom for Broad casters the fairness doctrine dates at least from 1929,though it did not achieve formal regulatory status until 1949. In provides in Brief that broadcaster must afford a reasonable Opportunity for the Dis Cussion of conflicting views on issues of Public importance. Most licensees voluntarily do just that. Those of us in the newspaper business Are the fair haired children of the first amendment. If it Ever were proposed to License newspapers and to compel us to publish views that conflicted with our own views we would howl to the High heavens. The supreme court has held in a Florida Case Hal Freedom of the press cannot be so circumscribed our right is to print what we please one sided or not and if you Don t like in Well Start your own newspaper. Broadcasters by contrast Are redheaded offspring. In a sense the Are pan of the press that is protected by the pint amendment but this is Only in a sense. Broadcasting is different. In theory anyone can Start up a newspaper. Not everyone can operate � radio elation. Broadcast frequencies Are limited. Without Federal licensing we could have chaos inthe air. The Power to Grant licenses implies the Power to fix conditions for revoking them. Thus the fairness doctrine. Until last week in was a condition that broadcasters had to accept. If in fact we Are rid of in we Are Well rid of it. The acc s unanimous decision has some holes in it but the Gist of the decision is Clear. The acc wants to be shed of its responsibility to Monitor  the commission s feeling a feeling perfectly in Accord with the spirit of the first amendment is that government has no business deciding what is fair in the presentation of Public issues such editorial decisions should be left to the licensees which is to say such decisions should bereft ultimately 10 the listeners and viewers. If a Sta Tion is patently continually egregiously unfair us audience presumably will Manifest resentment by switching to other stations. That is the Way a marketplace is supposed to work. The acc s Derisi a set off a horrible huffing an puffing on Capitol Mill. Such ordinarily sagacious senators As Ernest Hollings of South Carolina saw grave threat to the Public interest. Rep. John Ding Ell of Michigan predicted congressional response next month. Once before. President Reagan vetoed Bill to while the fairness doctrine into statutory Law but parliamentary mane vering May devise Abill Hal would be veto proof. My own suggestion is Cool it. Is the fairness doctrine constitutional the supreme court assuredly has said so. This was injure 1969, when the court voted 8-0 to uphold an order imposed by the acc on station a gab in Pennsylvania. The station bad carried a broadcast by the  James Hargis in which Harris attacked Fred Cook author of a critical Book about Barry Gold water. Cook demanded free reply time. The nation Lumen him Down and the acc ordered the station to meet its obligation under the fairness doctrine. Justice Byron White saw no constitutional impediment. The government he said unquestionably has Power to Grant and deny licenses. Noth ing in the first amendment prevents the government from requiring that a Licensee present views and voices representative of the local Community. Ii is the right of the viewers and listeners not the right of the broadcasters which is Par  purpose of he first amendment said White is to preserve an uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will ultimately prevail but the trouble with the fairness doctrine is thai it has preserved no such thing. Many broadcasters fearful of costly litigation simply decline to gel int issues of Manifest controversy. Las week s decision May make some broadcasters a Little less timorous a Little More bold but you watch 99 percent of the stations will continue policies of reasonable fairness or blandness if Only because such policies make Good business sense in a highly competitive Market Only a handful of cities have competing daily papers bul Mol of the country can tune i five to channels and a dozen radio station. On the air unfairness won t pay