Kids First founder joins FCC as special adviser

The agency charged with regulating content on television and radio has hired a conservative Christian activist and former lobbyist to serve as a special adviser.

Penny Nance, founder of the Kids First Coalition of Alexandria, Va., now serves as a liaison between the Federal Communications Commission and Congress, public interest groups and the industry.

For years, the Mississippi-based American Family Association and other conservative activist groups have criticized the FCC for failing to crack down on indecency. In hiring Nance, the FCC has tapped someone who has identified a “huge indecency problem” on cable television and advocated for a family hour when racy programming is held off the air, according to Mediaweek Magazine.

The Kids First Coalition addresses obscenity and pornography among other child-related issues. Until recently, Nance also served on the board for the Washington-based Concerned Women for America, a group committed to “bring biblical principles into all levels of public policy,” according to Mediaweek.

Agency spokesman David Fiske declined to say why the FCC had chosen Nance. “It’s common for people to come to the FCC from all sorts of backgrounds,” Fiske said.