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creasing concentration inefficient or illegal. There are important efficiencies to be gained by the mergers of large media interests; important gains in coverage have also been realized. And while the conspiracy theories are many and practically unending in scope, we need not believe media conspirators are behind this radical change. The government has loosened its restrictions on concentration, sometimes for good economic reasons; technologies of transmission have changed to the great benefit of all; and the consequence has been an extraordinary concentration in media production.43 But whatever the reason, the results are staggering. And they extend beyond the mere structure of the market. They affect its character as well. The resulting mix of media is strikingly homogenous. The companies that make up the handful of international conglomerates are cookie-cutter variations of one another. Some are slightly larger in music than in film; others are slightly more American in ownership and content. But if you had to characterize the differences in philosophy or attitude among these different media conglomerates, it would be extremely hard (unlike, for example, the situation with newspapers in Britain): there are no clear philosophical or ideological differences among them.44 Many have quite rightly worried that this control by a few who are not very different from each other will have a significant effect on the kind of news that is reported. Andrew Kreig tells a compelling story of the effect of chain management on an American newspaper, driving the respected Hartford Courant to more excessive, sensationalistic reporting.45 The paper he describes is not dissimilar from many others. There are many stories about corporate owners influencing the news within their organizations—steering the news away from stories that reflect negatively upon those corporate owners.46 Congressman Newt Gingrich expressly recommended as much in 1997, when he told the Georgia Chamber of Commerce that business leaders and advertisers “ought to take more direct command of the newsroom.”47 Even if we ignore this most blatant form of bias, if the media are owned by a handful of companies, each basically holding the very same ideals, how much diversity can we expect in the production of media content? How critical can we believe these media will be? How committed to testing the status quo is this form of organization—itself so dependent upon the status quo—likely to be?48 You don’t need to be a radical to be worried about this trend. Even the most committed pro-market ideologues could at least hope for a broader