A Horrifying Portrait of Media Consolidation

Is Big Media reducing the diversity of news and views available to voting Americans? Must we scurry to "break up the media barons the way Teddy Roosevelt broke up Standard Oil?" reasoner Matt Welch offers a portrait of his pitifully circumscribed and monopolized media consumption.

In the morning, I read most of the L.A. Times (Tribune Co.), and scan the funny headlines from the New York Post (Dr. Evil). To see what people in the L.A. Times newsroom are gossiping about, I'll check Kevin Roderick's independently owned (or "I," from here on out) L.A. Observed. For more local scuttlebutt, I might click on Mayor Sam (I), Fishbowl L.A. (Media Bistro), LAist (Gothamist LLC) and Blogging.LA (Metroblogging.com). Since I'm a baseball fanatic and Angels partisan, if I have time before work I'll read and maybe post a comment on Halos Heaven, which is part of the interesting SB Nation family of fan-blogs launched by (believe it or not) that Great Orange Satan of the lefty blogosphere Markos "Daily Kos" Moulitsas (pssst! Media reporters! There's an interesting story there!).

If I drive to work I'll listen to (God help me) Jim Rome (Premier Radio Networks) on KLAC (Clear Channel); when commercials come on I'll either flip to Sandra Tsing Loh's science bit on KPCC (Southern California Public Radio) or to the latest Hugo Chavez speech on KPFK (Pacifica). On the way home it's usually the Angel game on KSPN (ESPN), the Dodger game on KFWB (CBS Radio), the Laker game on KLAC … or barring sports, some rock music on the fab Indie 103.1 (Entravision). If I'm taking transit I might grab the New Yorker (Conde Nast), Reason (Reason Foundation), the L.A. Downtown News (I) or my current favorite newspaper in the world, the Los Feliz Ledger (a nice-sounding gal named Allison).

Try doing your list–it's fun for the whole family!