Did you know that under certain circumstances, sellers of TV stations had to pay higher taxes when selling the stations to white people than black people?  It sounds racist (it is racist!), but it is true.  Even more bizarre, liberals want to reinstate it, creating different tax rates based on the color of the skin of the buyer:

Minority owners are burdened by the legacy of racism. When the U.S. government first started giving away our airwaves in the 1930s, they were distributed exclusively to white, male owners. It mostly stayed this way until the 1970s, when the FCC tried to remedy the problem by implementing a “Minority Ownership Policy.” The measure offered tax incentives to people seeking to sell stations to minority owners. 

In other words, sell to a minority, and you get a lower tax; sell to a white person, and you get a higher tax.  I wonder if the old apartheid South Africa had race-based taxes as well...or is this just something liberals here perfected?

The policy worked. Within two years of its passage, the country went from one black-owned television station to 10. Over its total 17 year existence, minority ownership increased five-fold. But it was struck down by the newly-elected Republican Congress in 1995 and since then, its success has been mostly undone

What business does the Congress have meddling in the private sector, setting tax rates based on race?  What busines is it of Congress to determine the "appropriate" level of minority ownership of television stations?

More importantly, what does it mean to have minority ownership of a television station?  Many stations are owned by publicly traded companies.  Was Time Warner "black" when Dick Parsons was in charge but "white" now that he is gone?  When you start trying to classify large companies by race, you see how ridiculous it becomes.

Last year, in fact, just two television stations were owned by black owners.

And how many were owned by publicly traded companies, or private companies with a diverse ownership?  The WaPo didn't see fit to report that.  It's like saying, "Why aren't more oil companies owned by blacks?  Why isn't ExxonMobil, the publicly traded company, 'black'"?

Media consolidation is at the heart of the problem. Clear Channel, for example, famously wiped out small and minority radio station owners with its buying spree, which allowed the company to snatch up as many as seven stations in a single market.

How awful!  In a private market, black owners voluntarily sold their stations and made a profit.

Racism is where TV station owners refuse to sell their companies to minorities when they put them on the market.  Racism is also setting tax rates based on race.  But "not enough black owned stations," by itself, means about as much as "not enough blacks at the ballet."

This article was produced by NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.