Consolidated Coverage

The big danger in Monday's FCC ruling is supposed to be that it will reduce the variety of opinions, views and commentary represented in the media, and I'm beginning to think that must be true: Since Monday, all the commentary I've heard about the FCC ruling says the same thing: The move will reduce the variety and opinions represented in the media.

The Reason staff sees things differently. Chuck Freund in the most recent Reason Daily takes a trip down memory lane to a pre-deregulation era when local markets really were cornered by single media companies. Last week, Jesse Walker spelled out some of the flaws in the FCC's decision-making process. Jesse and Jeff Taylor tracked the news of the FCC announcement earlier this week. On Monday I had the privilege of appearing on "Air Talk" with Larry Mantle, to debate Corporateering author Jamie Court, and we spent much of the discussion covering media consolidation; you can hear us puff and wheeze in Real Audio. In an essay for the Los Angeles Times this weekend, Nick Gillespie analyzes how deregulation consistently expands consumer choices.

Who's right: Reason or the Chicken Littles? We'll have to see how the deregulation (or is it "deregulation"?) pans out. That is, if it gets the chance to pan out.