So Long as Oligarchs Control the Public Square, There Will Be Corruption
It’s time to break up Big Media, Big Tech, and the finance system that binds them together.
There’s a corrupt schemer born every minute, and US history is filled with presidents who have pressured businesses to serve their political agendas. The fact that Donald Trump is epically brazen and selfish only underscores the need for real anti-corruption measures. We cannot just rely on hope, shame, or anger to curtail such abuses; the protections must be structural.
After late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel criticized Trump and his followers last month for seeking “to score political points” from the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Brendan Carr, Trump’s chair of the Federal Communications Commission, threatened retaliation: “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel,” he said, “or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC.” ABC quickly suspended Kimmel, and only after a massive public outcry did the company reverse course.
One story we could tell about this episode is that democratic resistance worked. But the more important story is that the Trump administration’s censorship-corruption cabal was made possible because of choices made by Republicans and Democrats over three decades to allow media power to be concentrated in just a few hands. That’s the only reason Carr could even attempt something so shameless.
Twenty years ago, many big-city markets had multiple, independently owned network affiliates. Now, because of relaxed oversight and increasing consolidation, apparent “competitors” often share resources or even combine operations.
The big picture is even more daunting. In 1983, the media scholar Ben Bagdikian warned that with just 50 corporations dominating the media landscape, democracy was under threat. Now Comcast, Paramount, and Disney form a tight club of oligarchic media “rivals.” Comcast owns NBC, Telemundo, Universal Pictures, Illumination, DreamWorks Animation, Focus Features, Universal Television, Universal Parks, Fandango, Peacock, MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, Bravo, Syfy, E!, Oxygen, Sky News, Sky Sports, and Sky Cinema. Disney owns ABC, ESPN, FX, Freeform, the Disney Channel, Disney Jr., Hulu, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, National Geographic, Hollywood Records, and Walt Disney Studios. Paramount owns CBS, Showtime, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Television Studios, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, VH1, CMT, Pluto TV, Pop TV, the Smithsonian Channel, and AwesomenessTV. Who do we expect to speak up in what has become an oligarchic public square?
The Goliaths of Big Tech, who just a few years ago were heralded for promising to stand up to Trump, are now gushing over his leadership, as the president grants them tariff exceptions and carries their agenda into global negotiations with the European Union. That isn’t a result of any character flaws in Mark Zuckerberg; that’s the result of a structural flaw in our system.
The bad news is that this concentration is extreme. The good news is that it can be addressed—by electing a Congress that’s prepared to repeal the 1996 Telecom Act and revive laws that allow for democratic, decentralized media ownership, and more immediately, by getting state attorneys general to block media mergers and by mobilizing opposition to Big Tech data centers.
Sure, boycotts can sometimes make a difference, but consider the level of public anger it took to get Disney to reverse course on something so obviously corrupt.
Concentration isn’t just an abstract economic issue. It corrodes our dignity by enabling a small group of people to decide whose voices are heard and whose are erased. It exacerbates inequality by giving a handful of executives control over the stories that shape our common life. At its core, it is a moral crisis that feeds immoral decision-makers and makes it harder for true public discourse to exist.
Breaking Trump’s corruption requires breaking the structures that enable it. The obsequiousness of national broadcasters and large tech corporations says less about Trump than it does about the structure of power. As long as oligarchs control our public square, censorship and corruption will go hand in hand. The cure is clear: break up Big Media, Big Tech, and the finance system that binds them together.
