"The rise of the cartel has been a long time coming (and it still has some way to go). It represents the grand convergence of the previously disparate US culture industries--many of them vertically monopolized already--into one global superindustry providing most of our imaginary "content.""

The article's from a few years ago, and the diagram is somewhat out of date, but much of it's still relevant. Ted Turner saying, "It's sad we're losing so much diversity of thought." That's comedy gold right there. I also love the bti talking about the media conglomerates of yesteryear, which were dominated by folks who make refrigerators, smiles, and machine guns (not necessarily in that order).

It's nice to see people saying what I've felt more and more since high school: that the news is so bad because there's too much of it. Well, that and the atrocious bias at all but the smallest outlets, but frankly, I think the proliferation of pointless media is more dangerous.