Bart Stupak: “the Committee on Rules has denied me and other Democrats the opportunity to offer amendments that are vital and directly…”

“the Committee on Rules has denied me and other Democrats the opportunity to offer amendments that are vital and directly relevant to the debate on eliminating indecent content on the public airwaves. Americans should look at the link between the surge in complaints on indecent content on TV and radio and the increasing media consolidation that has occurred in recent years. During the Committee on Energy and Commerce's three hearings on Indecency in the Media, it became apparent it is the media giants who are the greatest offenders of the FCC's indecency standard. The biggest FCC fines have gone to the biggest media players. In the past 5 years, 80 percent of the fines on violations of the FCC indecency standard were handed out to the media conglomerates. I believe the increasing amount of indecent content on our public airwaves is a symptom of media consolidation, but the FCC never bothered to look at this possible link before they issued new rules last year to allow these media giants to get even bigger. The Parents Television Council noted this as well. Director Brent Bozell said after the FCC issued the new rules allowing more media consolidation, and I would like to quote him, he said, ``The rules change means that a handful of megaconglomerates will impose their own standards of decency.…”