John B. Breaux: “It says if Congress passes this, we will veto it. It is very clear. The administration says the new FCC local and…”

“It says if Congress passes this, we will veto it. It is very clear. The administration says the new FCC local and national media ownership rules more accurately reflect the changing media landscape and current state of network station ownership, while guarding against undue concentration in the marketplace. They point out this resolution throws all of that out the window, replaces it with nothing, and says we do not like it. Maybe some people like some of it and do not like other parts, but they got rid of everything the FCC recommended. That is bad policy and not something the Congress should do. I strongly oppose the resolution. I hope the Congress, in the wisdom of the Senate, will not adopt this resolution. Or at least I hope we do not adopt it in such a large margin that it prevents it from being successfully vetoed. Many of the arguments, when talking about television, newspapers, and radio come down to big is bad and small is good. That is obviously a simplistic statement and a simplistic argument. Many of the people who support the resolution talk about three areas: localism, diversity, and media concentration. In reviewing what the FCC has done in each of these areas, you will see we have a fair approach to guiding how the industries operate in the 21st century. This is not 1930, before we even had television. When Americans finally got a TV, citizens had a choice of maybe one network and then three. We have so many choices now people do not know what to pick.”