That was a money-saving thing -- allowing papers to use the same printing facilities. Newspapers are expensive to produce. National news magazines and local television ate into their audience and advertising.
But now you have ABC owned by Disney. NBC owned by GE. CNN owned by Time/Warner. Fox owned by News Corp.
What is even more amazing to me is the fact that virtually all popular entertainment -- and by extension, pop culture-- is manufactured by five (or six) companies.
I concur that this is objectively bad for the republic and the People.
I noticed a "Christmas special" on ABC the other night. I suspected, and didn't have to wait long to be proved right, that it was a Disney show, virtually a private-label, hour-long product placement for Mouse on their own captive network. I've also noticed name actors on ABC shows being given throwaway lines about going to Disneyworld, or mentioning Disney in some way.