Black Former FCC Commissioner To Lead Media Advocate Group

WASHINGTON -- Media Access Project (MAP) announced today that on April 1, Tyrone Brown, former Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and an entrepreneurial attorney, will succeed Andrew Jay Schwartzman as President of MAP, the nonprofit, public interest communications law firm. Schwartzman, who has headed MAP for three decades, will continue as Senior Vice President and Policy Director.

Brown has extensive experience resulting from a long and diverse career in communications law and industry. He came to Washington as a law clerk for the late Chief Justice Earl Warren, and served as FCC Commissioner during the Carter Administration.

Since leaving the government, he has interspersed communications law practice at major DC law firms, including Wiley Rein and Steptoe & Johnson, with business ventures. He participated in telecommunications and media start-ups, including the co-founding of DC’s first cable television system. He also collaborated on the successful re-launch after bankruptcy of IRIDIUM, the global mobile satellite system, serving as IRIDIUM’s vice chairman. Early in his career, he was an in-house counsel at Post-Newsweek Stations, the broadcast station operations of the Washington Post Company. Recently, he taught ethics to journalism students at Duke University.

“I am honored and delighted at the opportunity to lead this dynamic organization. MAP has an extraordinary record of accomplishment at the FCC and in the Courts,” Brown said. “I have always admired the way Andy Schwartzman has directed MAP in legal representation of groups that advocate for an open, competitive, participatory communications environment.”

“I plan to concentrate on expanding MAP’s sources of funding and, substantively, on highlighting and combating structural barriers to objective news reporting and on supporting optimal and ubiquitous access to the Internet by all demographics. Both of these values are absolutely critical for our civil democracy.”

“Ty’s expertise and leadership will be enormously important additions,” Schwartzman said. “The transition in leadership will allow me to dedicate my full attention to the communications policy work that I love.”

“Ty’s leadership will greatly expand MAP’s influence and its ability to fight for public participation and access to all media, including important emerging technologies,” said Albert H. Kramer, Chairman of MAP’s Board of Directors and partner at Dickstein Shapiro LLP.

Mr. Brown is former chair of the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and a director of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council.

MAP is a non-profit, public interest law firm dedicated to promoting the public’s First Amendment right to access and participate in a diverse marketplace of ideas in media and communications. For over 37 years, MAP has promoted the public interest before the FCC, FTC, and the U.S. Courts, advocating for open and diverse communications systems that protect the free flow of information, promote universal and equitable access to communications and technology services, and encourage vibrant public discourse on critical issues facing our society.

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