[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 24, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H9409]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   CONSOLIDATION IN OUR NEWS OUTLETS

  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, the previous speaker alluded to a financial 
crisis we are now in that has occurred in part because of greed and 
avarice and incompetence and perhaps fraud, but it's also arisen 
because of the lack of an honest, tough regulatory system to rein in 
those abuses that has been most unfortunate during the last several 
years. It's happened sort of in the dead of the night, and it points 
out the need for Uncle Sam to provide a regulatory system that really 
stands up for hardworking Americans.
  And I come to talk about one of those things that we need, which is a 
regulatory system to make sure that Americans have access to multiple 
sources of information so that we can make studied, reasoned decisions 
about public policy. And unfortunately, under the Bush administration, 
which I must say has not done a heck of a job in regulating the 
financial services industry the last few years, has also not done a 
heck of a job recently in providing a regulatory structure that would 
give Americans access to multiple sources of information in our news 
outlets.
  Specifically, what I'm concerned about, I'd like to talk about 
tonight, is the Federal Communications Commission, under this 
administration, has attempted to allow greater consolidation in our 
media outlets which basically reduces the sources and multiple diverse 
sources of information that Americans receive, and this has happened in 
the dark of the night. I'd like to address this problem tonight.
  Many of my colleagues have advocated against the consolidation of our 
news outlets because we know having multiple sources of information is 
healthy for public debate. It's absolutely intrinsic to a functioning 
democracy, and that's why we were outraged when the FCC voted last 
December to lift a ban on one company owning a daily newspaper and a 
broadcast station in the same market, too much consolidation.

                              {time}  2115

  FCC Chairman Kevin Martin claimed that the new rules applied only in 
our Nation's biggest markets. Unfortunately, we found out that that was 
simply not the case. The new rules contained enormous loopholes that 
would allow companies to easily obtain permanent waivers that would 
allow this illicit and unnecessary consolidation in our media markets.
  Now this process has also lacked transparency. Americans have not had 
a fair shake to weigh in on this decision. Prior to the vote, the FCC 
held six town hall meetings during the course of the year. And even 
though the FCC gave little notice, thousands of people showed up to 
express concerns about what the Bush administration was doing here.
  The last public hearing the FCC held was in my hometown of Seattle 
this last November. Along with Senator Maria Cantwell, I called on 
Chairman Martin to give the public at least 4 weeks' notice prior to a 
town hall meeting. Well, clearly in an effort to reduce public 
response, they gave us about 4 days' notice. Nonetheless, 1,000 
citizens showed up to express a relatively unanimous opinion against 
any more media consolidation, against the position the FCC was 
advocating.
  However, the FCC Chair did not listen to those people. I know this 
because it turns out--I thought this was a little embarrassing for the 
FCC chairman--it turned out he had written an op-ed piece for the New 
York Times in favor of further possible consolidation and submitted it 
to the paper even before he got done with the hearings. And then he 
came out to Seattle and purported to be listening to the Americans. 
He'd already formed his opinion and had written an op-ed about what he 
was going to do. It wasn't a very fair process.
  This is in part why I had introduced bipartisan legislation prior to 
the vote calling on the Commission to conduct its ownership proceedings 
with greater transparency and to deal with the crisis in minority and 
female ownership of broadcast stations. It's shameful that people of 
color own just 3 percent and women 5 percent of our Nation's TV 
stations.
  Following the December vote, the Senate introduced and passed a 
resolution of disapproval in May by a nearly unanimous voice vote. This 
enjoyed broad bipartisan support. We know where Americans stand on this 
issue. They do not want to continue the increasing consolidation in the 
media market.
  I've introduced a resolution of disapproval. We have over 50 
cosponsors. We're going to run out of time to get this bill passed this 
year, but I want to congratulate the public whose vigorous opposition 
to this consolidation has allowed our voices to be heard. There have 
been no new major media mergers that have taken place in the broadcast 
industry while we have been fighting this battle.
  I want to congratulate people for fighting this effort, and we will 
continue our efforts into the next Congress.

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