Yet another example of why media consolidation is bad. Isn't it funny that Michael Powell's FCC insists on expanding obscenity laws for radio -- a philosophy that content should be regulated because airwaves are limited and should therefore serve the public interest -- but has no problem with loosening media ownership rules that put those public airwaves in the hands of fewer and fewer individuals?

An excellent article in The New Republic on why Michael Powell's unilateral redefinition of antitrust will have grave consequences for the American public.

Maybe this sounds like a banal observation, but I'm becoming increasingly convinced that media companies should never go public or sell themselves to publicly owned corporations. Good, serious journalism just isn't compatible with the short-term financial goals of Wall Street investors.

Yes, journalism can -- and must -- remain profitable to survive. But when a newspaper begins mandating layoffs solely because it wants to enjoy the profit margins and growth goals of other Wall Street companies, journalistic quality becomes secondary. Sure, family owned newspapers are always at the mercy of their egomaniacal owners, but they usually saw journalism as a public service, willing to suffer thinner-than-average margins as a reality of the business. And as we saw with CNN, a privately owned news operation -- even when headed by a self-absorbed gadfly like Ted Turner -- can produce groundbreaking journalism.

We can only hope.

McCain Personally Reassures Bush on Party Plans Darn.