Washington, DC - Congressional Black Caucus Members G.K. Butterfield (NC), Bobby Rush (IL), Edolphus Towns (NY) and Al Wynn (MD) will hold the Braintrust titled, "Broadcast Programming: Have we Created an Information Disconnect to our Communities," on September 27, 2007 at 2:00pm in Room 143-A of the Washington Convention Center.  This braintrust will take a look as such issues as the pros and cons of syndicated programming; non-compete clauses in media employment contracts; minority media ownership; and media censorship.

"I expect this to be an extremely exciting discussion," said Congressman Towns.  "Our entire panel for this year's Telecom Braintrust is very experienced and possess a wealth of knowledge about media issues," he added.

This year's Telecom Braintrust moderator is LaToya Foster, host of the television program "In the Know" which airs on Sunday mornings on ABC.  The panel itself includes the "cream of the crop" of the media industry:
• Nate Davis - CEO of XM Satellite Radio
• Charles Warfield - CEO of ICBC Broadcast Holdings
• James Winston - President of the National Association of Black-owned Broadcasters;
• John Muleta - President of M2Z Networks
• Melody Spann-Cooper - President of WVON Radio
• Honorable Jonathan Adelstein - Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission

This braintrust will also take a look at who owns what media and whether the Telecom Act of 1996 should be revisited.  In addition, with increased use of the Internet, there is a need to examine how and whether "new media" should be regulated and finally, it will review "media fairness."

"I am particularly interested in the issue of minority ownership," stated Congressman Towns.  Though African-Americans are one-third of the American population, they own only 3.3 percent of this nation's television stations.  More must be done to increase that number, "remarked Congressman Towns.

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