Frank Blethen

An outspoken opponent of proposals to lift the Federal Communications Commission's media ownership rules will appear as a panelist on the Commission's last public hearing on the question.

Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen is one of sixteen individuals who will offer their perspective at tomorrow's hearing, to be held in Seattle's Great Hall starting at 4 pm.

In December of 2006 Blethen called the American media landscape a "battlefield for democracy [that] has tilted decidedly away from the people, as the rapacious capitalists have been strengthened with a new and ominous weapon — that weapon is newspaper and media consolidation, and the control of the information distribution channels."

Blethen will speak at 4:30 pm alongside Pamela S. Pearson, General Manager of the Tribune Broadcasting Company's TV cluster KCPQ/KMYQ in Seattle, Bernie Foster, publisher of the Seattle Skanner, Elizabeth Blanks Hindman, Associate Professor at the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University, Erubiel Valladares-Carranzo II, Technical Engineer, KPCN-LP 96.3 FM Radio Movimiento's “La Voz del Pueblo,” and Mark Allen, President & CEO of the Washington State Association of Broadcasters.

The Washington State Association recently co-signed a statement protesting the FCC's recent fine against Comcast for broadcasting undisclosed video news releases on its CN8 network. Allen has also been a vocal proponent of digital "must-carry" rules that would require cable companies to transmit all channels that TV stations broadcast using split signal technology.

Conservative Radio talk show host Jon Carlson will also appear on the panel. Although a Republican, Carlson has been critical of the FCC's policies. Appearing as a speaker at an earlier hearing, he told the audience that "when deregulation leads to competition, it is a good thing. When it leads, however, to massive consolidation and the concentration of more and more power on the airwaves in fewer and fewer hands, this is a cause of genuine concern."

Guests on the FCC hearing's 8 pm panel will include Abby Dylan of the Seattle Screen Actors Guild, Bruce Fife of the American Federation of Musicians, Christina Romano Glaubeke of Children Now, Joseph Orozco, station manager for KIDE-FM, and Michelle Santosuosso, formerly with Napster.

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