WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, called for sustainable solutions to support the future of local journalism at today’s hearing on the future of broadcast ownership. Sen. Cantwell focused on the importance of finding a sustainable business model to avoid a future in which communities across the nation are left without local journalists and without a voice.

“Right now, millions are also turning to the Olympics and watching that,” said Sen. Cantwell. “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. 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.’ So, today I'm here to fight for local journalism.”

Sen. Cantwell highlighted the severe challenges facing local news as employment has plummeted from 40 local journalists per 100,000 Americans in 2002 to just eight today. Even the Washington Post, a flagship institution, recently laid off more than half its local D.C. reporters, demonstrating the urgent need for sustainable solutions to keep reporters in the newsroom. Today’s hearing also focused on the proposed merger between Nexstar and Tegna and what that merger would mean for communities across America, if approved by the FCC.

“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,” said Sen. Cantwell. “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. Why would I go for this merger if, in fact, you're going to basically hand over more concentration [and create] less diversity?”

Sen. Cantwell, in addition to exploring the challenges posed by industry consolidation, also expressed her concerns that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will accelerate the decline in local journalism, which is a detriment to AI systems themselves.

In his testimony, Mr. Waldman stated: “We have a vicious cycle. AI undermines local news; the lack of local news, in turn, makes AI’s quality worse. Fortunately, a virtuous circle can be created: if AI helps revive local news, it will make its results higher quality. The AI industry ought to view itself as having a stake in reviving local news.”

“So we have to fix this,” Sen. Cantwell said. “That is why I introduced the bipartisan COPIED Act with Senator Blackburn to stop AI companies from using journalists’ content without their consent. [That’s] why we support…a tax credit where states are using tax credits for local journalism, as we have proposed.”

In addition to her tax credit legislation, Sen. Cantwell also highlighted her bipartisan COPIED Act with Sen. Blackburn, which would prevent AI companies from using journalist’s content without consent and appropriate compensation.

“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,” concluded Sen. Cantwell “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.”

Video of Sen. Cantwell's opening remarks is HERE and video of her Q&A is HERE. A complete transcript is HERE.