Seattle’s a great place to visit.

The Space Needle, Mount Rainier, good music, great coffee, the list goes on.

But if you’re the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, there’s another good reason to visit Seattle: Sen. Maria Cantwell’s personal request that the FCC hold a public hearing on media consolidation. 

The request comes at a critical time. The FCC wants to relax the rules that protect local communities from media monopolization. If it passes its current plan, one company will be allowed to control newspapers, TV stations and radio stations in cities across the country. This would be an outrageous reversal of decades-old policies meant to protect against the corporate concentration of our media. 

The agency must hold public hearings if it's even considering a change like this. 

If the chairman makes it to Seattle, here's what he'd likely hear: The public strongly opposes media consolidation.

Four years ago, a nearly identical FCC proposal would have given big media more control over the public airwaves. But hundreds of thousands of people spoke out in opposition, and members of Congress tried to get the FCC to drop the plan. A federal court tossed out the relaxed rule last summer.

Now the FCC is proposing bringing it back. 

Sen. Cantwell wants to know why the FCC thinks it's a good idea to revive this plan. We think that's a perfect question to ask Chairman Genachowski at a public hearing.

We need the FCC to gather input at public hearings ... starting in Seattle.

Sign our invitation to Chairman Genachowski today.

And check out the video of Sen. Cantwell and Chairman Genachowski at a Senate hearing this week:

If you care about fighting media consolidation, please consider a donation to the Free Press Action Fund.