Senate Commerce Committee Future of Journalism Hearing Set For May 6

The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, May 6 on the future of Journalism

From the witness list, it appears to be focused on the decline of newspapers and perhaps the rise of the Internet as an alternative.

The House has already held a hearing on newspapers' falling fortunes, at which there seemed to be more finger-wagging than sympathy from Democrats.

The witness list for the Wednesday Senate hearing includes the VP of Google and Arianna Huffington from online site, The Huffington Post, as well as James Moroney, CEO of the Dallas Morning News.

Then there was the witness whose listing in the committee e-mail seemed to be its own testimony to the state of journalism. "David Simon, former reporter, The Baltimore Sun (the Sun just laid off a third of its staff, according to many published (ironically online) reports.)

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.