**STOP MEDIA CONSOLIDATION -- URGENT ACTION NEEDED!**
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Only days left to protect independent media,. The clock is ticking in Congress.
Please immediately contact your House member and Speaker Pelosi
202-224-3121
to remind them of the urgency of bringing HJ Res 79 (or SJ Res 28) to the floor for a YES vote. Rep. Bob Filner (D-51) is already a sponsor of this Joint Resolution. Ask your congress member to become a sponsor of the resolution and to urge the members of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet (members listed below) to demand Pelosi bring the bill to the floor. Key SoCal subcommittee members are Congressional reps: Harman, Capps, Solis & Eschoo.
What would HJRes 79 do?
This resolution would uphold a ban on cross ownership of newspapers and television/radio outlets in the same market. Media outlets could still apply for a waiver, but generally speaking it would be illegal to own both a newspaper and a television station in the same market.
This joint resolution - disapproving the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission with respect to joint broadcast media ownership - has recently been passed by the Senate The urgency is that the joint resolution will be BINDING and not subject to veto only if it also passes the House within 60 legislative calendar days of its introduction on 3/13/08. We want the House to pass HJ Res 79 ASAP!
. We want this joint resolution also to pass in the House in order to negate the FCC rule which ends a 32 year ban on the cross ownership of newspapers and television/radio outlets in the same market. The FCC rule, as it now stands, very seriously impedes addressing the crisis in local, minorities and female media ownership, and supports the increasingly tenacious stranglehold over local news by 5-6 corporate big media giants. As historically, media owners can still apply to the FCC for a "waiver" for joint ownership if it can be established to be "in the public interest".
This bill is in the first stage of the legislative process where the bill is considered in committee and may undergo significant changes in markup sessions. The bill has been referred to the following committees:
| Sponsor: | Cosponsors [as of 2008-05-03] Members, House Subcommittee on Telecommunications & the Internet | Majority | Minority | - Edward Markey, Chairman, Massachusetts
- Mike Doyle, Vice Chair, Pennsylvania
- Jane Harman, California
- Charles Gonzalez, Texas
- Jay Inslee, Washington
- Baron Hill, Indiana
- Rick Boucher, Virginia
- Edolphus Towns, New York
- Frank Pallone, Illinois
- Bart Gordon, Tennessee
- Bobby Rush, Illinois
- Anna Eshoo, California
- Bart Stupak, Michigan
- Eliot Engel, New York
- Gene Green, Texas
- Lois Capps, California
- Hilda Solis, California
- John D. Dingell, Michigan Ex Officio
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Votes for Identical Bill S. J. Res. 28
| May 15, 2008: This bill passed in the Senate by Voice Vote. A record of each representative's position was not kept. | |
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