colleagues who spoke. i envy them because they obviously got to work with donald every day, and they got to know him even before than i did. they got more direct benefit from being with a gentle, honorable man. a man who, in my experience, and i spent a lot of times on trains with him and a lot of time talking to him as a member of the foreign relations committee, but a guy who is probably, as the old saying goes, he is what the doctor ordered but we need badly here in washington. it's not just -- it's not just what he did. it's just not how deeply he felt about the cause he's fought for. a lot of you feel as deeply. a lot of you, democrats and republicans feel the same way. but the thing i admired most about him was i was reading the quote in the -- they said when i was a young man i came across a book of poetry from my father. i'll never forget the quote from the book. a father wants his son to be better, brighter and that he. i always remember that when i grew up, et cetera. my dad used to have an expression. he said you know you're a success when you turn and look at your son or daughter and you realize they turned out better than you. he has joked about it. but a lot of us as fathers know we're successes because we look at our children. your dad had that privilege of being able to know. but i think there is a reason for why. the distinguishing characteristics for me, someone who knew him well, but not nearly as well as many of you, was that he had another trait that my dad thought was a single most valuable thing beyond courage that you could possess. and that was that donald comported himself with dignity, but more importantly, he accorded dignity to everybody else. everybody else. remember him saying to me when i -- of vice president, i quoted my dad saying a job is a lot more than about a paycheck. it's about dignity, it's about respect. it's about your sense of youfrs. it's about your place in the community. it's about who you are. and donald calling me about seem mall willia, calling, hearing me say that. and i went back and asked my staff to look up what i thought donald talking about. and donald's -- the ability of donald to comport himself the way he did in a pretty increasingly rough environment for both parties, donald said "i think there is a lot of dignity in being able to achieve things without having to create rupture." you know, sometimes in our town, and congressman, that was an eloquent presentation you made, but sometimes in this great town with a lot of great heroes, we go through phases where we sometimes confuse dignity with weakness. we sometimes confuse dignity with lack of resolve. the magic of donald, the magic of your brother, your father, your grandfather was no one ever confused it with him. it is pretty remarkable. i served in the senate for 36 years. i've had the great pleasure of knowing an awful lot of great women and men. as was pointed out when i left the senate after being elected the seventh time, only 13 people in history served longer than me, which is supposed to give me solace, but it made me feel very bad. but the point of the fact is very few people can pull off what donald pulled off. i don't know what it is. i don't know what that thing was that he had. as i said, a lot of people have his passion. i know a lot of you republicans and democrats bleed for your constituency, have done incredible things. but he had something special. there was a place where there is a psalm that says "to the upright there rises light and darkness. he is gracious. he is full of compassion, and he is righteous." donald was upright. donald was a man who was always to my experience, always gracious, whether he was talking to the conductor on amtrak or being with him in his district, which i was on several occasions after i first met you, or whether it was in god forsaken places in africa where i might add no one has mentioned it took courage to go where he went. he put his life in jeopardy on some of those trips. it wasn't automatic. it wasn't always donald being greeted with open arms. i can think of two occasions where his aircraft was greeted with weapons fire at his aircraft. so, you know, the interesting thing about donald, upright as the psalm says, there rises light and darkness. it not only lightened him, it was amazing how much light he brought to the darkest recesses of his district and of the world. you know, it's been mentioned here a number of times, and i apologize for repeating it, but i think it's important. it's been mentioned here that donald was always a teacher. he was the kind of teacher a lot of us wish we had when we were in school. teachers never lectured, teacher that demand a lot of you. a teacher that knew what you needed, was able to help you where he could. but expected you to act. that was everything about him. there is a great phrase about being a teacher. and whether it was donald going after increasing pell grants or cutting loan interest rates or all the other things he did in his district, there was -- there was -- there is a great expression i'll end with. and it was by henry adams. he said, "a teacher affects eternity. he can never tell where his influence stops." "a teacher affects eternity. he can never tell where his influence stops." we can say all we know about donald to his family, but we don't know, we really don't know where his influence stops. i'll close by reaching into my irish roots, because donald helped. teddy kennedy helped, worked so hard on the northern ireland accords. his compassion was not cabined by race or color or ethnicity. and the highest compliment any irishman can accord to anyone, period, is to say "he was a good man." donald payne was a good man. [ applause ] >> mr. vice president, let me thank you for your kind remarks and all those who paid tribute today to donald payne. at this time i'd like to ask leader pelosi to join me as we present congressman payne's family a flag that was flown over the capitol on the day of his passing and a copy of house resolution 571 expressing the house's sincerest condolences. >> we are honored to be joined today by the reverend dr. jefferson sr., pastor of the metropolitan baptist church in newark, new jersey, who will deliver the benediction. >> let us all stand. out of respect for this great man, if you would please bow your heads with me. eternal god our father, as we come to the close of this memorial service, a service to celebrate and a service to commemorate the life and the legacy of the honorable donald m. payne, we are grateful that you blessed us with such a super life. as we gather in this sacred hall today, populated by those who have shown courage and greatness for our nation, it is very befitting that we are here to celebrate this great man. one who chose power over pain, one who chose courage and dignity over fear, one who chose faith in the face of doubt, one who chose peace instead of war, one who brought knowledge where there was no knowledge, and one who brought light where there was darkness. and all of us stand today in solidarity to simply say thank you for blessing us with such a great life. and now in the words of that old baptist preacher, we're not sure what state he was from. his eyesight was dim. his hair was gray. his back was bent over, but at the close of his service, he lifted his hand above the heads of his parishioners and he said these words, "my hands on the plow, my faltering hands, and all that is before us now is untilled land, the desert in the solitary places within space, and sometimes the handles of our plow with tears get wet, and yet and yet we do not believe that you brought our great nation this far to leave us now, and we welcome and we thank you for the life, the contribution, and all that this great man has done for his spirit and his life will live on in the hearts of those that he touched around this nation and throughout the world. it is in your name this we humbly submit and say thank you. amen. >> amen. >> ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our memorial service. i want to thank all of you for joining us. i know don's family will be receiving guests in the rayburn room. and may god bless his soul. i seem to have earned a certain place where people will listen to me, and i've always cared about the country. and the greatest generation writing that book gave me a kind of a platform that was completely unanticipated. so i thought i ought not to squander that. so i out to step up as not just as a citizen and as a journalist, but as a father and a husband and a grandfather. and if i see these things, i ought to write about them and try to start this dialogue, which is what i'm trying to do with this book about where we need to get to next. >> in his latest, "the time of our lives," tom brokaw urges americans to redefine the american dream. and sunday, may 6th, your questions for the former anchor and managing editor of "nbc nightly news." in his half dozen books he has written about the greatest generation, the 1960s, and today in-depth, sunday may 6th, live at noon eastern on c-span 2s book tv. where is the national public radio table? you guys are still here? [ laughter ] that's good. i couldn't remember where we landed on that. >> this weekend on c-span, the 98th annual white house correspondents dinner. president obama and late night talk show host jimmy kimmel headline the event before an audience of celebrities, journalists, and the white house press core. coverage starts with the red carpet arrivals live at 6:30. and watch the entire dinner, only on c-span. you can also sync up your experience online at c-span's dinner hub. find the celebrity guest list, highlights of past dinners, plus blog and social media posts at c-span.org/whcd. the white house correspondent's dinner live saturday at 6:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. with an increasing number of people accessing video content online and on a myriad of mobile devices, the senate commerce committee on tuesday looked at what the changes mean for consumers, for technology, and for the price of access. witnesses include the former ceo of paramount and fox as well as executives from amazon.com, microsoft, and the nielsen company. this is two hours. >> good morning, everybody. we have a very distinguished panel this morning. not that we don't always, but this is particularly so. and we welcome you all. there will be hopefully thousands of senators coming to surround to ask questions about the impenetrable future. but anyway, this hearing is about the emergence of wrong line video and the power broad band to change the way in which we watch. and who knows what that is going to be five or ten years from now. this is the start of an exciting and it's a timely conversation. it's the first hearing that has been held on this subject, which is not sort of attacking each other, but looking out into the future and trying to figure out what is coming at us. can we handle it? now why are we doing this? because television is just an overpowering force in our life. television meaning what a lot of people still watch. at its best, it can do more than entertain, it can educate. but not all television programing is enlightening. nor is it all fit for children's viewing. it's a global age, and i'm concerned the video content that we produce does not represent the best face that america has to the nation. so my first question is how will this disruptive technology -- when i say that, that's not a negative connotation, that's just a fact that things are changing so fast in such mammothly important is disruptive in a hopefully positive sense but definitely disruptive. how will the disruptive technology that online viewing will provide lead better -- to better content and to more consumer choice. but more than content is at issue here because year in and year out consumers face rate increases for pay television that are rising faster than the rate of inflation. we're paying for so many channels, though we usually only watch a few. i, for example, have 500 channels. and if i watch in the course of a month more than ten, i would be amazed. why am i paying for 490? i have no idea. does it give me a warm fuzzy feeling? not particularly. but on the other hand, it is all there if i want to go get it. so who is to know about human nature? so i want to know if the emergence of online video will do more than improve content and expand choice? i want to know if it's going to bring a halt or a slowdown at least to escalating bills. one other point i want to make. i've said forcefully in the past that too much television programming is crude and a poor reflection of our society. although this hearing is not focused on that topic, and i want to make it clear, i just also want to make it clear that this is something which i really care about very deeply as all of my suffering colleagues on this committee know and i'm going to keep at it until it gets better or until i get to be my great grandfather's age, whichever comes first. so right now the question is, how do we harness this change for power for consumers? so we can get higher quality program at lower rates. but really more important, what's going to happen? what's going to happen? the stats of people who are cutting off land line and -- for telephones can also be -- i mean, i think i read that in the last month that nielsen had said that all broadcast news was down in the last month. now i guess if it's down over the course of a year it would be down over the past month but it sort of grabbed me putting it that succinctly. to our witnesses, i look forward to your thoughts on this subject and i thank you for joining us today and i want this to be a lively and forward looking theory. so senator demint is the ranking member of the subcommittee. on this subject. senator kerry is not here for the moment. and senator demint, we look forward to your comments. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i do thank all the witnesses for being here. thanks for holding the hearing. the communications sector continues to be one of the most dynamic and innovative in our economy, and i hope this is just the first of many hearings this year that allow an opportunity to learn and discuss the marketplace and update the committee's record. mr. chairman, the obstacles between consumers and the video content they seek continues to disappear. and the video market, tremendous advancements in technology and massive capital investments in distribution networks now empower consumers to craft their own viewing experiences more than ever. at the root of this increasing consumer power and choice is a complex and overlapping mix of content creators, distributors and electronic manufacturers racing to serve the marketplace better. a few such companies from this mix are with us today. with innovation empowered individuals however comes disruption to establish mods and incumbent powers. unfortunately many of our current video laws and policies were sought and achieved decades ago by established interest seeking government granted protection from market forces. they were written for a time and a market that no longer exists. and they need to be repealed. our video laws simply do not reflect the current realities of the marketplace, and i'm afraid they actually foreclose innovative service offerings and consumer benefits. our laws should not promote or protect one technology over another or one competitor over another. last year i introduced the next generation television marketplace act to comprehensively withdraw government meddling from the video industry. there are two primary interventions the government has made over the years in the video market which my bill repeals. the compulsory copyright license and retransmission consent. these laws impose mandates on individual consumers and businesses. they violate the property rights of content creators, and they treat similar services differently. while i know these legacy issues are not the focus of today's hearing, mr. chairman, i look forward to discussing them at a future hearing here in this committee. in his prepared remarks, mr. diller states that consumer demand is a powerful force, and those who give consumers what they want will be rewarded in the marketplace. i couldn't agree more, which is why i believe we should be creating a deregulatory parody in the video market so investment and innovation, not lawyers and lobbyists, is rewarded in a free economy to the ultimate benefit of all consumers. finally, mr. chairman, i want to express my sincere interest in working together with you to seek ways to improve our laws and regulations to better serve competition, innovation, the national economy and most importantly, the american consumer. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. thank you for those comments which, obviously, i share about working together. we have not sat together before, but we will sit together in the future. our witnesses are sublime. barry diller who i've known for many years. my wife says hi. chairman of iac, former chairman of paramount pictures, fox broadcasting, usa broadcasting and you are an investor. you are very knowledgeable about the history of video and you have spoken previously about how the disruptive change presented by online video may change the nature of pay television. so we welcome your testimony, sir. >> thank you. >> -- long -- say too long career in entertainment and media. i've been chairman of three major studios, broadcast stations, broadcast network, cable channels and now internet companies with more than 50 brands. so i've been both a practitioner and a student in the evolution of media over the last 45 years. with ubiquitous broadband internet access, an unlimited pipe of options will be increasingly available for all audiences. and together with the advances in consumer devices like the ipad, it allowed consumers to access the content they want directly from producers without middlemen, without toll takers, wherever and however they want. this is the great future of consumer choice and competition. and i think the realization of generation s of public policy aspirations. that is, if we protect and encourage the miracle of the internet which allows anyone to press a send button and publish to the world without having to go through the closed systems that have so dominated media since its very beginning. contrast that future with the past world of less than a handful of broadcast television stations. and this evolved in the '70s and the '80s with the advent of cable television and satellite video distribution. but its development was encircled by rules and regulations designed primarily to preserve the incumbent broadcasters. hardly surprising that given any technological development that threatens the hegemony of the existing players is going to be opposed by them. then along came video recorders. when sony introduced the beta max video cassette recorder. this was opposed in a suit by universal and disney. at the time, two of the largest producers of programming. they contended that no one should have the right to make a copy of their material. courts disagreed and the vcr industry boomed. it made way for private, on-demand consumer consumption through the sale or rental of prerecorded video cassette tapes. cable and satellite offered all manners of service enabled by the technology of the video recorder. now, along comes the great revolution of the internet affecting every pocket of commerce, except, oddly, the way most people receive the most popular video programming. but even with the restrictive tv everywhere concept that demand a cable or satellite subscription,