Maurice Hinchey: “I am now introducing a resolution to express the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal Communications…”

“I am now introducing a resolution to express the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal Communications Commission should not revise its media ownership rules without more extensive review and comment by the public. I am doing this because the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Mr. Powell, made an announcement in March that he was going to further revise the rules of the Federal Communications Commission which would make it possible for fewer owners to control the information distribution system in America. In doing so, he is continuing a process which effectively began in the early 1980s when such things as the right of people in communities to express themselves over the airwaves when editorial positions were taken by radio stations with which they did not agree was abolished. As a result of that change and others, what we have seen is, for example, in the radio area, 80 percent of the radio audience being in effect controlled by three major corporations. We have lost diversity in our radio programming. We have lost the very important aspect of local control.”