The Importance of Competition
Derek Hunter
Watching cable news last week, I was disturbed by the latest trend in conservative media: calling for every Republican candidate for president not named Donald Trump to drop out of the nomination race because, as Newt Gingrich put it, “it’s over.” The GOP nomination fight is not over. In fact, it hasn’t even started – just ask 2016 GOP nominee Scott Walker, who led early and burned out before people voted. But because most of conservative media are nothing more than an echo chamber – people afraid to disagree with their audience – this is considered “analysis.” With no real competition, on top of low standards, it’s what can pass for it, too.
There is nothing that improves with fewer competitors. Nothing. A race with one competitor is just watching someone jog, and that’s what these platforms have become – unwatchable, unlistenable echo chambers of narcissism and cheerleading masquerading as analysis. Essentially, it’s watching a relay race with only one team in it.
Ask yourself this about competition: Are you better off with, say, media consolidation? Has the quality of shows on television improved, for example, as Comcast swallowed up other networks and streaming services? That may sound counter-intuitive since it means more outlets through which shows can find an audience, but there are also a lot more shows that are simply garbage because they need so many to fill the time. Competition used to necessitate shows at least be nominally good to get made. Now Comcast needs content across an ever-growing list of platforms, so quality suffers as shows that never would’ve seen the light of day get made because they need “more.
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https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2023/10/05/the-importance-of-competition-n2629343
