Rep. Markey’s full opening statement is below:

Today the Subcommittee is holding an oversight hearing on the Federal Communications Commission and, in particular, the proposal recently put forward by Chairman Martin to relax the broadcast-newspaper cross-ownership rule.

Under the previous FCC Chairman, in response to pressure from special political and corporate interests, the Commission approved a drastic and indiscriminate elimination of mass media ownership rules across the board. Thankfully that plan was thwarted from going into effect by the court and remanded back to the Commission. Chairman Martin’s proposal wisely avoids further deregulation of radio and television ownership limits and seeks only to relax the broadcast-newspaper cross-ownership rule.

After months of public and corporate input, and several public hearings around the country on the general issues of media ownership, localism, and diversity, I believe Chairman Martin’s specific proposal merits scrutiny and input from the public and the Congress. The process by which this proposal is considered and voted upon should reflect the importance of the subjects it addresses. Its consideration should also be informed by the public hearings conducted around the country.

Postponing the planned vote from December 18th would remove clouds of procedural objections that currently obscure the specifics of the proposal and hamper efforts to directly discuss them. The Chairman’s plan would benefit from more time so that the public and the Congress can seek clarification over several provisions that remain ambiguous or vague with respect to their intent or operational effect.

Our national media policy has long been characterized by efforts to promote the values of diversity and localism. Over time, the technologies utilized to deliver information to the public have changed, but these values remain immutable. As a matter of media policy, diversity of ownership remains our only proxy for diversity of viewpoints. Elimination of ownership limits, therefore, removes the best tool we have to help ensure that the public has access to a wide array of viewpoints in local news and information.

Because our system of democratic self-government relies on an informed citizenry we must seek ways to strengthen such historic policy objectives. Excessive media concentration can represent a powerful toxin to democracy and for this reason we are attaching great importance to the present policy undertaking at the Commission. I again urge Chairman Martin to give the public and the Congress the time his serious proposal warrants for review and consideration.

It is important to remember that the limits on mass media ownership that Chairman Martin proposes to relax were not created solely by liberals. On the contrary, both liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, have insisted on such rules and developed them in bipartisan fashion over a number of decades. The broadcast-newspaper cross-ownership rule, for instance, was adopted by the Commission during the Nixon and Ford Administrations.

The Commission chose to take action during that time due to what was occurring in communities around the country. On the local level, powerful conglomerates in the 1960's and 1970's were amassing multiple ownership of media outlets. During that timeframe, in the top 50 television markets (comprising 75 percent of the nation's television homes), 30 of such markets had one of the local TV stations owned by a major newspaper in the same market. By 1967, some 76 communities possessed only one AM radio station and only one newspaper, and they had cross-ownership interests between the two. Fourteen small communities had one AM radio station, one television station, and only one daily newspaper, all commonly owned.

Finally, I believe strongly that the Commission must take concrete action as part of this overarching media ownership examination to improve our nation’s abysmal record with respect to minority and female ownership of broadcast licenses. Racial and ethnic minorities own a paltry 3 percent of full power television licenses -- even though they make up roughly a third of our population. And women, who represent half the population, own only 5.8 percent of such licenses. The Commission is long overdue to make progress on this front.

I want to thank our witnesses for attending today and look forward to their testimony.