[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 14, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H4095]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY MUST RELY ON DIVERSITY OF OPINION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HINCHEY. Madam Speaker, I would like this evening once again to 
bring to the attention of the Members of the House of Representatives 
an action which will be taken by the Federal Communications Commission 
on June 2, now just a little more than 2 weeks away. This is a very 
critical action, and it will be a controversial one. It will be 
controversial within the Federal Communications Commission itself in 
that the vote is likely to be three to two. The three Republican 
members of the Communications Commission will vote for this measure, 
and the two Democrats will vote against it. This measure will continue 
a program that was advanced initially in the 1980's which is bringing 
about the increasing consolidation of the American Communications 
System into the hands of fewer and fewer people.
  For example, as a result of actions taken during the Reagan 
administration and subsequent actions taken, we now have a situation in 
the United States where 80 percent of the radio audience is listening 
to stations that are owned by just several companies. One company owns 
radio stations, 1,220 of them, all across America. This situation is 
critical because it is antithetical to a democratic society.
  When the Federal Communications Commission was established back in 
the 1930's, it was established in order to ensure that there would be a 
broad diversity of opinion expressed on radio, which was at that time 
of course the principal electronic means of communication. This 
position taken by the FCC and by the Congress which established it was 
informed by events that took place in Europe in the 1930's. Fascist 
governments in Germany, in Spain, and Italy had come to power by 
increasingly consolidating the means of communication; and once they 
were in power, they completed that consolidation, and it was through 
that consolidation that they remained in power in those countries.
  We here in the United States, recognizing that situation, set up a 
program whereby we would ensure there would be local voices first on 
radio and then subsequently on television when that developed into the 
next important electronic medium of communication. But beginning in the 
1980's, the Reagan administration advanced principles which allowed a 
handful of companies to increasingly own more and more radio stations, 
more and more television stations, and to dominate the public 
discourse, the public discussion, that was taking place in specific 
areas around the country. As a result of that, we have less local news 
on many local radio stations and television stations; people have a 
difficult time finding out what is going on in their community by 
listening to their local radio stations. Often the programming in those 
radio stations takes place thousands of miles away and has no 
relationship whatsoever to what is happening in those communities. 
There is no local voice, no local news voice, no local voice about what 
is happening in those communities as a result. And also, of course, we 
are finding uniformity in these communications media.
  Now the Federal Communications Commission is taking the next step, or 
they want to take the next step. That is the Republican-dominated 
communications commission, the three members, want to take the next 
step, and that is to allow in addition to the radio stations and the 
television stations in a broadcast area to be owned by a single entity, 
a single corporation, they now want to allow a system which will also 
allow for the newspaper in that media market to be owned by the same 
company.
  This is a very dangerous situation. A democratic society must rely 
upon diversity of opinion. No one single person, no one corporation, no 
one entity has a patent on the truth. The way that we arrive at the 
truth in the United States of America is by the conflux of voices, by 
people expressing their opinions, expressing their views, and those 
views being heard and then people being elected on the basis of those 
diverse opinions. All of that is increasingly in jeopardy as a result 
of the actions that have been and continue to be taken by the Federal 
Communications Commission.
  I am introducing a resolution to the House of Representatives 
sponsored by 72 Members of the House. That resolution calls upon the 
FCC to halt this process. I urge Members to come forward and support 
that resolution.

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