As Oceander stated, the same consolidation of businesses has occurred in autos, energy, computers, retail, etc.
So do you believe a case for a break up could be made in court, such as the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911, using the Sherman Act?
I don't, and I don't think a case could be made that they offer just one opinion, or are biased in the same way, either.
I happen to think most of these types of discussions stem from conservatism's failure to sell and resell itself, with skilled communicators and a compelling message.
I think there's something more to be said of why conservatism cannot just “sell and resell itself.” More on that another time.
But on the first point: I might argue that there are actually
more choices—and not just illusory ones—than there were in decades past. Ever since the federal government started giving out radio licenses in the 1920s there have always been a few companies that were able to shoehorn in at the ground level, build their foundations, and effectively shut out newer competitors, since there was always a limited number of spots on the broadcast bands to use. But networks have formed.
Let's start with radio: In 1927, there were two networks: NBC and CBS. Even though they didn't own their entire networks, pretty much any station in America had to affiliate with one of the two.
In World War II, the FCC ordered NBC to break up. ABC was born. Also rising was the Mutual network, which was effectively a coalition of independent stations.
Then in the 1950s, attention shifted away from drama and toward music. First, you had top 40. Yes, most of them stuck to a national chart—but at the time, those charts were based on what people were buying, what people were listening to in jukeboxes, etc. Many even developed their local charts. Then came all-news and the light instrumental “beautiful music/easy listening” for those stations that couldn't compete doing top 40.
FM radio came along, and competitors flocked to rock. A few years later, after top 40 had been around enough to build a back catalog, oldies showed up. The FCC opened up more FM licenses around 1990, and country became a legitimate choice outside the South.
Now let's consider television.
In the 1950s, you had a TV band restricted to twelve channels, and because of overlapping markets it was only three (or less) to any given city. You had three networks that controlled EVERYTHING on TV. Then in the 1960s they made TVs include UHF, which wasn't as easy to broadcast with, but it still allowed for independent stations to thrive and compete. In the '70s, the FCC cut out a hole in every TV station's schedule for non-network programs to allow syndicators to compete. (That was eliminated in the 90s, but the hole is still there.) Fox came in the 1980s, cable TV exploded onto the scene in the same decade, and low-power has some presence in the cities.
Then, of course, came the Internet.
Now, is it a little discouraging that with 200 channels on your cable or satellite lineup, 10 companies own almost all of them? Sure. But that's still a lot more than the three companies that controlled your TV and radio back in the 1950s.
