Thank you, Kathleen. As an FCC Commissioner you have been an incredible role model to women in the entertainment industry and you have reached out to all 20 women who head cable and broadcast networks. By the way ... there are more of us than there are women in the US Senate. Thank you for your leadership, Kathleen.

And thank you, Patrick Maines, Dick Wiley, and the Media Institute for this important award. I am deeply honored.

And of course, I am honored to be in the company of Bob Wright, truly deserving of the Freedom of Speech Award.

But I must confess, the real reason I came was to hear what Tim Russert has to say about the election - that is, Tim Russert unplugged. Tim Russert off-camera and off the record.

As you can imagine, this award means quite a bit to me - since the signature of my career has been about bringing independent voices to television.

The first time I discovered my own independent voice scared the beJesus out of me. When I was a 24-year-old first time teacher, you could hear a pin drop, along with all the jaws, as I took the kids’ side on every discussion at the faculty meetings. As you can imagine, I wasn’t exactly popular with the other teachers.

I was lucky to find the cable industry - my voice wasn’t so out of place, or so loud - when you think about Ted Turner, John Hendricks, Bob Pittman, Brian Lamb, Bob Johnson...We had a landscape of independent voices...all focused on the audience and bringing something new to them. There was plenty of opportunity to create new brands and diverse programming for television viewers all across the country. Those of us involved in the early days of cable - including Congress and the FCC -- created more choice, quality and variety in programming than ever before.

The cable industry opened up the whole creative process. MTV and Nickelodeon opened the doors to independent animators - all with new styles, new voices. You might not be so overjoyed about Beavis and Butthead, but Rugrats surely found a way to your hearts....Documentarians from all over the world got a chance to have their work seen and their voices heard on Discovery. CSPAN brought political voices right into your living room.

I still believe, as I did then, that independent and new voices are important to viewers and critical for the vibrancy of this industry.

We joked when we started Oxygen in 1998 that we would be the last independent to get widespread carriage. Sadly, I think that will be true. Don’t get me wrong -- I’m jubilant to be in 53.2 million homes. But sad that the next generation of Brian Lambs and Ted Turners may not get their chance. And sad that we will be the only women owned and operated network in the United States, and we’re the first!

Sometimes when I hear from the mega distributors that there is no room for new content and new voices because of bandwidth limitations, cost concerns, retrans consent leverage, etc., I fear that they have lost their way and developed amnesia.

Let’s not develop amnesia about the creative process - the powerful entertainment companies built their businesses on the backs of independent creators and producers. And their cable assets are the backbone of their companies.

Let’s not develop amnesia about what got consumers hooked on cable - it was the invention of new content networks.

Let’s not develop amnesia and think that leverage is the only way to build.

And let’s not develop amnesia and think that a la carte would be good for consumers. (Oh no that is another subject from another day!)

So thank you for the opportunity to say my piece. And thank all of you for this honor - on behalf of independent voices everywhere and the audiences who value them.