Indeed, objective newspaper and television coverage of politics and current events are considered crucial to democracy.
Good government requires diversity of opinion and an informed electorate.
Since media plays such a critical role in our democratic process, it's in the best interest of government to maintain a diversity of opinion and prevent media corporations from becoming too large. Although the Federal Communications Commission currently enforces rules to prevent media monopolies, recent events have brought to light the possibility of media abuses. Because media companies have shown that their coverage of the news can be clouded by the interests of the corporations that control them, the FCC should carefully review future mergers and prevent an excessive consolidation of media. Under the current FCC rules, no single company can reach more than 35 percent of the U.S. television audience through television stations it directly owns. After finalizing a deal with CBS, the corporate giant Viacom went over this cap in May 2000.