[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 158 (Thursday, October 12, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H10027]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            MEDIA OWNERSHIP AND OTHER ISSUES FACING AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Sanders] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, as the only Independent in the Congress, 
what I want to do is take a few minutes to discuss some of the major 
issues facing this country, issues which often do not get the time and 
exposure that I think that they need.
  The very first issue that I would like to touch upon deals with how 
the American people get the information that they need in order to 
formulate intelligent decisions in our democracy. I am increasingly 
concerned about the rapid concentration of ownership within the media 
in America today. It should be a real concern to all Americans that all 
of our major television networks are owned by very, very powerful and 
wealthy corporations who very clearly have a conflict of interest in 
terms of what they present on the air. Rupert Murdoch, a multi-
billionaire right-wing individual, owns the Fox Television Network. ABC 
has recently been purchased by Walt Disney whose chief executive 
officer earns several hundred millions of dollars a year and is one of 
the wealthier people in America. CBS will now be owned by the 
Westinghouse Corp. NBC is owned by General Electric. I think what we 
have got to ask ourselves, are corporations like these going to provide 
objective information to the American people? I think the answer is 
very clearly no, and I think the situation in terms of corporate 
ownership of the media is going from bad to worse. Fewer and fewer 
large corporations are controlling not only the television, controlling 
the radio industry, book publishing, newspapers, et cetera.
  Mr. Speaker, I would raise a particular concern that recently, just 
in the last week or so, we learned that the Jim Hightower radio show 
has been taken off the air by ABC. To my mind, the Hightower show was 
one of the more provocative and interesting radio talk shows in 
America. It was a progressive show. I think it was a very good antidote 
to the Rush Limbaugh and the G. Gordon Liddy types, and I am concerned 
about its disappearance from the air.
  Mr. Speaker, the second issue that I want to talk about which also 
does not get a whole lot of discussion is the reality that is facing 
middle-class America and the working people of this country.

                              {time}  1945

  To my mind, the most important economic issue facing this country is 
that the standard of living of the vast majority of our people has 
declined since 1973. I get very tired of reading newspapers that tell 
us about how good the economy is, how the economy is booming, how we 
are creating new jobs, how the gross national product is going up. All 
of those figures are fine, but they are irrelevant in terms of what is 
happening to the average American worker.
  The fact of the matter is that since 1973, 80 percent, repeat, 80 
percent of American working people have seen either a decline in their 
real inflation-accounted-for-wages or, at best, economic stagnation. 
The middle class is shrinking. Poverty has increased significantly over 
the last 15 years.
  On the other hand, what has happened is the very wealthiest the 
people in this country have seen a tremendous increase in their 
incomes.
  I wonder how many Americans know that right now, today, the United 
States of America has by far, by far, the most unequal distribution of 
wealth in the industrialized world. No, it is not Great Britain with 
their queens and their dukes and their barons and their strong class-
based society which has the most unequal distribution of wealth. It is 
the United States of America.

  With the rich growing richer, the middle class shrinking, and the 
poverty increasing, we now have a situation where the richest 1 percent 
own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent, which is 1 percent or more 
wealth than the bottom 90 percent. No matter how you slice it, ``That 
ain't fair.'' It is not what America is supposed to be.
  Very clearly, Newt Gingrich's Contract With America, which will give 
huge tax breaks to the richest people in this country, which will, in 
effect, do away with taxes for the largest corporations while cutting 
back on all the needs of working people, low-income people and the 
middle class, will only make that situation even worse.
  Let me very briefly, Mr. Speaker, touch upon some of the areas that I 
think we have got to move in if we are going to revitalize American 
democracy, if we are going to increase voter turnout, if we are going 
to make the American people feel--well, Mr. Speaker, it looks like I am 
not going to get to those issues. We will try again next time.

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