Iowa Congressman Jim Leach says he’ll cosponsor legislation to overturn a ruling by the F-C-C Monday that would ease the ownership restrictions on media ownership. Leach says he considers this to be “a very disturbing phenomenon” as he says the last thing we need is more concentration of ownership and concentration of sources of news. Leach says if anything, the F-C-C should be going in the other direction. Leach, a republican from Iowa City, says allowing one company to control all the media in one city is dangerous for the country. He says it has long term implications for the vibrancy of democracy in the sense that how you get news in the terms of sources is a very competition oriented thing. Leach says he’ll cosponsor legislation to stop any easing of ownership restrictions. Leach says it would move to keep the prior rules in place and overturn the F-C-C move to ease the rules. Leach says getting the Senate and the House together on legislation to overturn the F-C-C move will not be easy.Leach says a definitive executive branch ruling through and executive agency carries a lot of weight, but he says it is not necessarily compelling in Congress or the courts. But, Leach says it will be an uphill battle to get the issue reversed.
