PORTLAND (AP) – Maine’s congressional delegation on Monday unanimously decried a ruling by federal regulators to relax decades-old rules restricting media ownership.

The state’s two Republican senators and two Democratic congressmen each released statements saying the eased restrictions would likely lead to a wave of mergers that would lead to a few large media companies controlling more of what the public sees, hears and reads.

The Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to adopt a series of changes favored by media companies. The party-line vote will permit companies to buy more television stations and to own a newspaper and a broadcast outlet in the same city.

The companies argued before the FCC that existing ownership rules were outmoded on a media landscape that has been substantially altered by cable TV, satellite broadcasts and the Internet.

Following the decision, Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, a member of the House committee that oversees federal telecommunications policy, said the FCC’s decision will lead to a concentration of power with a handful of media conglomerates.

“Today, it’s the Dixie Chicks who are banned from local radio airwaves by a heavy-handed corporate radio network. Tomorrow, it could be any performer, writer, public interest group or political viewpoint at odds with an owner’s ideology,” he said.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the FCC, called on the commission to rigorously evaluate the petitions for reconsideration it will receive.

The approved changes “will undermine the basic tenets of democracy and objectivity in reporting and may have long-term consequences in terms of public access to information,” Snowe said.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, echoed the same concerns. “The FCC’s ruling will further limit the choices of the American people both on broadcast television and cable networks,” she said.

Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, said the public was shut out of the decision making process.

Suzanne Goucher, president of the Maine Association of Broadcasters in Augusta, said the organization, which represents radio and television broadcasters in the state, is “passionately neutral.”

“Needless to say, we have members on both sides of the question,” she said.

Snowe and Senators Ted Stevens, R-Ark., and Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., have introduced legislation to maintain the current rules allowing broadcast holdings to reach 35 percent of the U.S. population.

AP-ES-06-02-03 1810EDT

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