> The problem isn't concentration, it's media under the discipline
> of profit maximization
I think media concentration does matter, but that the real concentration happened decades ago. Maybe I'm a paleo-Sweezyite in saying this, but at some point, concentration means monopoly media -- and any further concentration beyond that point doesn't make much difference. In the days of NBC/CBS/ABC dominance, the media were already fairly concentrated, no? Whatever deleterious effects that concentration had, they were already in place by that point.
But I do think concentration matters. Ninety years ago, before the networks, and in the days when people like Hearst had just come on the scene and still faced serious competition, there were hundreds of thousands of subscribers and probably millions of readers of the Appeal to Reason (which, if I recall correctly, was published out of Kansas). That's not true today -- and I don't think this is a small point.
- - - - - - - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com
Tell no lies, claim no easy victories