Ed Markey: “The bottom line on this bill is that under current law the FCC decides whether the programming is educational. That is…”

“The bottom line on this bill is that under current law the FCC decides whether the programming is educational. That is their job: Does, in fact, the public TV station fulfill the educational requirement to serve the entire community. If we adopt this bill, the FCC will have to decide whether the programming is religious. That is its responsibility. Now, no one believes that it is the job of the FCC to make religious determinations, yet that is exactly what this legislation asks it to do. We will have turned the Federal Communication Commission into the faith-based content commission, all the time saying that they did not mean to. They did not mean to do that; they did not mean to have the FCC determining whether or not this public television station had served the religious needs of the community. But it will have to do that. If we support public television, we should vote against this bill. If we support keeping Federal bureaucrats out of religion, we should vote against this bill.”