In a democracy, media should, ideally, be a way in which citizens receive information, but not the only way. Watching debates on TV, reading analysts in the newspaper or looking at election polls in a weekly magazine should all be unbiased ways in which consumers learn about their government, but citizens should also go listen to politicians speak and volunteer in campaign offices to get a look at what is really happening. Internet blogs are a good way to find out what others feel about certain issues and connect with fellow citizens.
Corporate America taking over the media is a threat to unbiased information. Competition does not encourage variety, but stifles it. Corporations will homogenize information and the way it is portrayed until it is impossible to differentiate one channel from the next. Media conglomerates will be different only enough to make a viewer choose the NBC nightly news over that of CBS, but is there really a difference, or just a shallow preference with no meaning? If corporations can do swimmingly by all emitting identical images, yet tweaking the layout so it is so obviously "CNN-ish", they will do just that and forget about informing the public with many different views and opinions, and making sure to include all the information. If the CEO of General Electric is a huge Zach Braff fan, then you can bet that Gene Schallot will give a rave review for "The Ex". And how democratic is that?
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