Posted 5:09 PM by Gene

Is GENERAL JR.'s big prep for a seven-digit career in lobbying starting to acquire (as they say in the trade) a CRITICAL MASS of opposition, despite Big Media's best efforts to squelch any mention of it? Unfortunately the issue has become a Democratic-vs.-Republican thing, with Democrats opposing consolidation because they hate RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (or rather FOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!News), and Republicans supporting it because they LUUUUHVE (hold your nose here) FREE ENTERPRISE (aka caveat emptor), with Sen. McCain the designated Demo er, skeptic. I made up my mind long ago: It's no coincidence the bigger media have become, the worse they have become. It's hard to imagine them getting worse; but as I said a while back, I don't think Rupert or Sumner or Mr. Mickey Mouse or any of the Masters of the Universe would flinch at restaging the ancient Roman gladiatorial games, complete with death, and at the very least our popular culture has lost its regenerative power (or as Dan Ackman wrote yesterday, "five sequels and a comic book"). It should say something that the business end of show-biz is suffering from the same arthritis and arteriosclerosis as the "creative" end. Perhaps holding back the Vulgarians will be, in the end, a gesture of futility, like so many of government's ill-fated schemes to halt media abuses; but giving the store away to a few overly powerful charlatans isn't the answer either.