The China Syndrome
Right-wingers may yawn when people criticize pro-American U.S. media bias during the Iraq war, and sure it is ok for news people to like America, but how do they feel about pro-China U.S. media bias (in the form of Rupert Murdoch (owner of NewsCorp & Fox News) supressing news outlets or publications that are critical of China, in order to gain market access over there.) Such an action recalls our noble "defense" companies like Boeing and Hughes helping defend America by helping China with missile launch technology so they could do cheaper satellite launches (while also improving Chinese ICBM launch capability to nuke the U.S.)
Reporting pro-U.S. news because you like America - is problematic (especially if you ignore problems that need to be addressed) but understandable (in time of war and in reaction to the Left-wingers who ignore all the evils of the rest of the world and blame America first), but reporting in the same pro-biased way about a another country that is a potential threat to the U.S., just to gain economic favor (while possibly damaging U.S. interests) is unforgivable (treacherous, even.)
Regarding media consolidation:: the U.S. is the land of franchises, and huge consolidated retail outlets like Price-Club/Cost-Co, Home Depot, Walmart, etc. It's not hard to find good food in the cosmopolitan cities of the U.S., as long as you avoid all franchise restaurants (with the exception of a few family owned franchises that have some ethical standards) and go find some good privately owned ethnic restaurants (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Mexican, etc.). The ethnic restaurants serve good food not only because it is ethnic, but because they are typically family owned, and the owners care about quality as well as profit. Franchised ethic cuisine restaurants are rarely as good as the real (small, family owned) thing. At the big retail outlets, it is a different story. The convenience is great, and the variety is far greater than small family owned retail businesses, but the choices are still limited to the volume products which the retailers want to move (frequently not the best possible offerings of a product category.) I like to think that a small shop owners would try to stock products that made them proud, as well as made them profit (of course, these need to be balanced against reality in the marketplace.) I have my doubts about the ethical motivation of large retailers to stock anything but that which makes the best profit, regardless of whether it is the good/better/best choice for the customer.
The U.S. as the principle opponent of the doctrine of Communism throughout the cold war should be well aware of the perils of centralization and the crushing of individual contribution (contribution to be motivated through the Capitalist rewards system.) Large scale corporate ownership consolidation smells too much like Communism to me - a few people get the rewards, and the workers who have no ownership stake other than trying to preserve their job security, are not motivated to contribute to quality and innovation.
Freedom is limited by what choices are available to choose from.
11:03:27 AM 
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