[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 177 (Thursday, November 15, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H14068-H14069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2200
    PROPOSED CHANGES TO MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, last Friday, the FCC held the last of six 
public hearings about proposed changes to media ownership rules. They 
did so in Seattle after I called for that meeting so that people in the 
State of Washington could let their government know what they thought. 
It was really an unbelievable showing at this hearing. The FCC 
callously only gave them 5 days' notice. But still it is estimated that 
1,000 people showed up on a Friday night for a 9-hour hearing that 
ended up at 1 a.m. on Saturday morning.
  Most Friday nights Americans won't be going out to hearings. But in 
Puget Sound country, and indeed across the country, people understand 
how important a media consolidation could be as a threat to our 
diversity and our democracy, and 1,000 people showed up to testify. I 
encouraged my constituents to attend. I want to credit Reclaim the 
Media, the Free Press and the Seattle Times who also got the word out 
about this important hearing.
  At the hearing, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein prophetically 
stated that if the FCC quickly proposed a new rule, ``you know your 
input was dismissed.'' He was right, unfortunately. Despite the 
protestations of almost every single witness in Seattle on Friday 
displaying the overwhelming sentiment against this consolidation, on 
Tuesday, one business day later, Chairman Martin announced his plans to 
end a 32-year-old ban on radio and television broadcasters owning 
newspapers in the Nation's largest media markets, including right in 
Seattle where 1,000 people asked him not to do so.
  The fact that Mr. Martin had an op-ed piece published in Tuesday's 
New York Times just a couple days later shows this was clearly a 
preordained decision and that appearance in Seattle was just a stunt, 
and, frankly, an insulting one to the citizens who attended. He went 
through the motions, but Seattle people did not.
  Now, those people knew that weakening the ownership rules would allow 
the media landscape to be dominated by a few massive corporations, 
putting too much control in a few hands and producing a system where 
only the powerful can be heard in our democracy. It would lead to a 
lack of diversity of voices, programming that is out of touch with 
local concerns, as well as a continuation of the homogenization of our 
news and our entertainment.
  Already, consolidation has brought us to the point where in the 
average radio market, two companies control 70 percent of market 
revenue. That is why the Senate voted to overturn the first try, the 
first run that Mr. Martin and then-Chairman Powell took in 2003 to 
loosen these rules. It is why a Federal court tossed out the ill-
advised rules in the Prometheus decision, and it is why we need to stop 
a second attempt to do the same thing that 1,000 people in Seattle 
asked to be stopped.
  Therefore, I am working with my colleague, Congressman Maurice 
Hinchey, to reintroduce our legislation that would derail Commissioner 
Martin's cross-ownership scheme that is so contrary to the wishes of 
the public. Mr. Martin claims that his proposal is a modest one. In 
fact, it would impact half of Americans who live in the top 20 media 
markets and could impact even more with possible waivers and 
exemptions. I wish 1,000 voices in Seattle and thousands more in 
hearings across the Nation would have knocked some sense into a 
particular commissioner, maybe three of them on the FCC who are heck-
bent, or perhaps hell-bent, on loosening media consolidation rules.
  Now that this Federal agency has disclosed its real plan to move 
ahead with a plan that runs so counter to public sentiment and the 
public interest, the time has come for Congress to weigh in. We are one 
voice that the

[[Page H14069]]

FCC can't tune out. It is time for Congress to act. Let's make sure the 
will of the American people is heard, not just this preordained stunt 
by an FCC commissioner.

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