TV News Covered Paul Ryan’s Workout 3x More Than Record Arctic Sea Ice Loss.
The free press is more than a private business. It is protected in the constitution for reasons other than shareholders getting good returns on their investment. It has a public responsibility to contribute to an informed citizenry.
Public corporations are deliberately designed to care only for shareholder profit, plus whatever their managers can steal from shareholders. Informing the public as citizens is not on their radar unless it is profitable, and much important news is not profitable to report on. On the other hand, Rupert Murdoch has demonstrated and continues to demonstrate the damage one mogul can have on the country. It is a pity citizenship cannot be revoked and Canada has shown great wisdom in prohibiting FOX from being established in that country.
In an imperfect world neither human beings nor corporations should be allowed to own more than a single outlet. A variety of outlets means some will be forced to actually report on the news to gain market share of a segment of the viewing and reading public.
For a scholarly analysis of this problem and its causes, see my paper from The Review of Politics, “Toward a Hayekian Theory of Commodification.”