[VIDEO] 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, delivered the below opening statement at a hearing on the future of broadcast ownership featuring testimony from Chris Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, Curtis LeGeyt, President and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, Thomas Johnson, Partner and Co-Chair of Issues and Appeals at Wiley Rein LLP and Steve Waldman, President of Rebuild Local News.

Sen. Cantwell: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for calling the hearing and the witnesses to be here today. This is a subject that, generally, I would say I care a lot about and I do think that today we'll get into a pretty big debate about the amount of digital content now in advertising, and controlling that market.

“I also think we'll hear a lot about why it's not a good idea for consumers to have so much content behind paywalls and them not being able to access it. I think the first two witnesses will agree on that. I'm not sure they're going to agree on other things, but they are going to agree there.

“This past Sunday, more than 100 million Americans watched the Super Bowl. Obviously, I'm very happy about my state of Washington and the Seattle Seahawks bringing home a second Lombardi trophy. Right now…”

Sen. Cruz: “On the over-under, on whether you'd make it a minute before saying that I had the under. Congratulations.”

Sen. Cantwell: “Thank you.”

Sen. Klobuchar: “And you did it with the former Vikings quarterback to add to our pain, to add to our pain.”

Sen. Cantwell: “I want to say there was a lot of people helping the Seahawks, a lot of Texans, a lot of – great job by your former quarterback, yes.”

“Right now, millions are also turning to the Olympics and watching that. And this brings communities together. This brings fans together. It brings our country together. But Mr. Chairman, as the media landscape becomes more fragmented every year, those shared experiences are becoming rarer. And as I said earlier, my concern about how much is being eaten up by tech companies in the broadcast model, and how much is being put behind a paywall, is very concerning.

“That is why several years ago, as Ranking Member of the Committee, we put out a local journalism report… ‘America's Most Trusted News Source.’ And that is why my focus is what are we going to do to help keep that. From the report, it says, ‘modern economic literature views this through the lens of information economics or asymmetrical information, which is now recognized as [a] basic tenet of economics.’

“Basically, what we're saying is, if you don't have a lot of competition on information, you're not going to get perfect information. You're going to get distorted information.

“So, as the report says…’Economists across the political spectrum agree that increased reporting on local conditions leads to fair prices for goods. A decline in local journalism and ensuring decreases in available information result in market inefficiencies.’ So, today I'm here to fight for local journalism.

“If the Nexstar-Tegna deal goes through, a single company will control 265 stations capable of reaching 80 percent of all the television households, more than double the current cap. And for nearly half of their audience – 100 million people – Nexstar would own two or more stations in a media market. Now that concerns me. To me, that is not more local voices, that is fewer. So I want to see how we are going to deal with this kind of situation.

“We've invited Mr. Waldman who in his testimony says that [there are] roughly 40 local journalists for every 100,000 Americans. Today, that number is eight. That was in 2002. That number is now down to eight.

“The decline is not just limited to small outlets. Just [last] week, we saw a massive layoff at the Washington Post. This includes cutting over half the journalists covering local D.C. news. So if flagship national institutions are struggling, imagine the pressure on small local stations and newspapers, creating – in my opinion – the need for more stability and accountability, not less competition.

“So, the important thing that we are here today to talk about is that local news is quite literally, in my opinion, the seed – corn seed, if you will – for AI. You can't have perfect information if journalists aren't creating it, but yet, we know that AI is consolidating that data and all of that information. And if before they weren't compensating for that, now, they certainly are perpetrating a business model that will make that even less clear.

“Mr. Waldman describes we are in a vicious cycle: less local news may makes AI less accurate and it makes local news less viable. So we have to fix this. That is why I introduced the bipartisan COPIED Act with Senator Blackburn to stop AI companies from using journalist content without their consent. [That’s] why we support—and Mr. Waldman and I were just discussing—a tax credit where states are using tax credits for local journalism, as we have proposed.

“And AI companies should want a format where you are creating content and that content is accurate and competitive in a nature that makes [the] U.S. stack [of] AI information more accurate than other countries. That's to me, it seems, the goal.

“Changes to the cap do not address the real structural problem, and they risk reducing the diversity of local voices without solving the underlying problems of economics. So I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about the solutions that will help us grow local journalism for the future. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”

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