Burgess Owens: “the airwaves, the spectrum, is owned by the American people. Most of the American people do not know that we own it and…”

“the airwaves, the spectrum, is owned by the American people. Most of the American people do not know that we own it and that the representatives of government, including the Members of Congress, are the trustees for the American people. We need to take back our airwaves and use our airwaves and our spectrum and our media for the benefit of the people. This is not an infringement upon the rights of the broadcasters. This is a fulfillment of the capacity and the possibilities of the broadcast media. Most of the industrialized nations, the civilized nations, are providing greater access to media for candidates, far greater than we are. So we need to take this first step. The broadcasters are very anxious, upset, because they know if we take one step, it might lead to a greater realization by the public as a whole that the airwaves belong to the people. Freedom of speech has to be guaranteed some way. We cannot do it the way we do with the print media, where anybody can get access to the print. We regulate, we carefully regulate the airwaves and the spectrum. There is not enough room for everybody, so those who are regulated must bow to the regulation which puts forward the interest of the people. They must bow to certainly making our political campaigns more accessible to people. Big money will always have an advantage, as long as we leave the broadcasters in charge, to charge what they want to charge.…”