NEWS CHIEFS VOW INDEPENDENCE FROM OWNERS.(Living Today)

Byline: Kathryn Baker Associated Press

A congressman suggested Wednesday that General Electric Corp., a major defense contractor, be required to divest itself of NBC because of a potential conflict of interest in owning a news organization.

But news chiefs of the three networks insisted there would be wholesale resignations, including theirs, should any parent company seek to influence a network news division.

"I think we're an enormous porcupine that would be indigestible under those circumstances," CBS News President Howard Stringer told a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications and finance.

NBC …