Byron Dorgan: “I do not see it that way. I am going to go through a couple of charts and talk about the mergers, the corporate weddings…”

“I do not see it that way. I am going to go through a couple of charts and talk about the mergers, the corporate weddings where people get together and say, ``Bigger is better. There used to be two, we are now going to be one, we don't have to compete. We control the markets.'' They say, ``This is all about competition. We are going to have competition and competition is good for people.'' Not in this case. This is about concentration, the issue of whether you ought to limit the number of television stations you own to 12, as in current law. Some feel maybe we ought to make an adjustment. It should not be a political adjustment by somebody in Congress who says, ``Gee, let's remove the shackles from the folks who want to buy 100 television stations.'' Maybe that ought to be made by the Federal Communications Commission after an evaluation of what represents effective and good competition, what is in the public interest. ABC and Walt Disney got hitched a couple months ago; ABC and Disney. Let us look at what all this means. Disney, 11 television stations so far: Walt Disney Television, Touchstone, Buena Vista. They have cable: Disney channel, ESPN, Lifetime, they have 10 FM radio stations, 11 AM radio stations, publications, retail, motion pictures. Put all of this together and what do they have? Less competition. Is that bad? Not necessarily. I am not saying every merger is bad.…”