Con­cen­tra­tion of any indus­try is dan­ger­ous but media con­cen­tra­tion is par­tic­u­lar­ly dan­ger­ous because of the vast influ­ence media exert in shap­ing pub­lic opin­ion. Years ago, leg­endary jour­nal­ist and media crit­ic Ben Bagdikian warned of the dan­gers posed by media monop­o­lies. Those warn­ings have been borne out. A hand­ful of mega cor­po­ra­tions from Com­cast to Dis­ney dom­i­nate the media. As Bagdikian pre­dict­ed, cor­po­rate busi­ness inter­ests would trump jour­nal­ism, par­tic­u­lar­ly inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ism which is cost­ly thus cut­ting into prof­its. Lack of com­pe­ti­tion allows the con­glom­er­ates to raise prices. Have you looked at your cable bill late­ly? Fur­ther­more, a vibrant democ­ra­cy is ill-served by a cor­po­rate media that is heav­i­ly con­nect­ed to and reliant on offi­cial sources. An informed cit­i­zen­ry is essen­tial for the com­mu­ni­ca­tions needs of a demo­c­ra­t­ic soci­ety. Media monop­o­lies should be bro­ken up.