Ventriloquistic Journalism?

RUPERT MURDOCH'S News Corporation empire may be growing: he's trying to buy Newsday, the dominant newspaper on Long Island.

The problem is that he currently owns the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, as well as New York television stations WNYW and WWOR. The Federal Communications Commission says that you aren't allowed to own two newspapers and two television stations in the same market.

Murdoch is trying to get a waiver from the ruling. The Senate Commerce Commission may stop him.

“It’s exactly the kind of consolidation I would hope the commission finds is not in the public interest because the free flow of information in this country is not accommodated by having fewer and fewer voices determine what is out there,” North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan told the New York Times. “They try to argue that there are all these outlets — the Internet, television, radio, newspapers and so on. It may be more outlets, but it’s the same ventriloquists. You have five or six corporate interests that determine what most Americans see, hear and read.”

Larry Mendte might have said he didn't see pressure from corporate honchos but the fact of the matter is that the messages are being controlled by fewer people.

Is that really a problem? Or is this just capitalism in its purest form?