Testimony of Ken LeBlond on media ownership, presented to the FCC in Seattle, Nov. 30 2006 [transcription]

Hello, my name is Ken LeBlond and I’m a graduate student at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. Thank you for coming to Seattle. The local news stinks and that’s no mystery. Something that may not be as well-known locally is that, of all the corporate-owned radio and television stations in Seattle, there is only one broadcast outlet from the Seattle media market with a full-time broadcast reporter in Olympia covering state government (that reporter being from one of our local NPR affiliates, KUOW).

If that situation has changed for the better; since I first heard about this I doubt it was changed much. Now, maybe I’m just a simple graduate student in public affairs who is a self-professed government nerd, but I think the lack of government coverage is sad. While I love my local NPR affiliate -- this just is not enough. Where’s my government coverage on the evening news? Where’s my election coverage? I blame lame media ownership but I wish that you continue to do all you can to keep media ownership diverse and not concentrated. Thank you.