WHEREAS, the news media are the principal sources for citizens to receive information necessary for participation in the democratic process; and

WHEREAS, in recent years, there has been a trend toward consolidation of media ownership so that a handful of large corporations control radio, television, newspapers, movies, music, magazines, book publishing, and the Internet; and

WHEREAS, broadcasters use a public resource, the electromagnetic spectrum (the airwaves), to generate huge corporate profits and, in return for this use of public resources, should act in the public interest; and

WHEREAS, the amount of time given to news coverage of important public events, such as elections and local television programming, continues to decline; and

WHEREAS, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has acquiesced in this consolidation, attempting to rewrite the rules to permit even more concentration of media ownership; and

WHEREAS, this concentrated ownership dilutes diversity of opinion and is a threat to our democracy and a threat to the labor movement by allowing a handful of media owners to sway public opinion through manipulation of news and other programming; and

WHEREAS, these monopoly forces are a threat to jobs, as technology makes it possible for wholly automated broadcast facilities with a few centralized employees to gather, edit, and report the news; and

WHEREAS, it is local people creating programs about our community that are necessary for an understanding of the issues that affect our local quality of life and permit us to make intelligent choices in a democratic fashion; and

WHEREAS, our elected officials and government decision-makers must address the changing relationships among local broadcast, satellite, cable, and broadband media operators for commercial interests that that will continue to shape the marketplace and reduce access to the diversity of opinion; and

WHEREAS, continued concentration of the media allows owners to frame the news to suit their private interests; and

WHEREAS, the current U.S. anti-trust law disallows a single company from owning more than one media outlet in a single community to assure diversity of opinion; and

WHEREAS, Emmis Communications, an Indianapolis company, has received a temporary waiver allowing Emmis to own both KHON-TV and KGMB-TV in Honolulu, Hawaii, which serves to reduce the diversity of opinion available to Hawaii's citizens and may result in the loss of jobs; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2005, that this body urges the Hawaii State AFL-CIO to call on the FCC and Hawaii's congressional delegation to act in the public's interest by ending the temporary waiver; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body requests that the Hawaii State AFL-CIO join the hundreds of thousands of Americans, including unions, consumer organizations, civil rights groups, and working men and women in calling an end to deregulation and for the FCC, our national legislators, and the courts to act in the genuine public interest, by crafting rules and laws that serve diversity of ideas before increased corporate profits; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body further urges the Hawaii State AFL-CIO to form a committee to be staffed by Chris Conybeare of the Center for Labor Education And Research (CLEAR) and to include local unions that are directly affected by the concentration of media ownership to further study these issues, to keep the membership informed of developments, to join with like-minded organizations to form a broad coalition in support of media in the public interest, and to take appropriate action; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the Hawaii State AFL-CIO and members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

Report Title:

REQUESTING AN END TO THE CONSOLIDATION OF NEWS MEDIA OWNERSHIP