Sen. Maria Cantwell wants FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to visit Seattle and collect public input on the FCC's new media ownership rules.

The timing is perfect. Right now, the FCC is considering relaxing the rules that regulate who owns the media. If the agency passes its current plan, one company will be allowed to control newspapers, TV stations and radio stations in cities like Seattle. This would be an outrageous reversal of decades-old policies meant to protect against the corporate concentration of our media.

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.

Sen. Cantwell wants to know why the FCC thinks it's a good idea to revive this proposal. 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.