The petition filed by a law professor has been dropped by the Federal Communications Commission, according to online court records.
In Sept. 2014, George Washington University Professor John Banzhaf petitioned the FCC to deny the broadcast license of a Dan Snyder co-owned radio station which is part of Red Zebra Broadcasting.
Of the several reasons that Banzhaf offered, one was that the use of team name Washington Redskins violated FCC rules because the term was a “racial slur.”
Banzhaf said that “repeated and unnecessary exposure” to the word “Redskins” causes “psychological harm, not only to Indian and non-Indian children, but also to Indian adults.”
He asserted that broadcasters, who operate in the public interest, were failing the public by broadcasting the word.
The FCC found there were no serious violations involving the station that would constitution a pattern of abuse.
The license for Red Zebra Broadcasting has been renewed.
There are similar petitions with the FCC, to block the license renewal for TV station’s that frequently use the team’s name.
