Would anyone care about the media mergers if anyone could start a "pirate" radio or tv station without fear of punishment from the FCC? Aren't we just wailing about rearrangement of the deck chairs on the Titanic? Wouldn't true deregulation allow thousands of local broadcasters to bloom, making the activities of the media giants as irrelevant as the activities of Burger King to those who frequent the Saturn Cafe?

When will we understand that the real problem here is that the FCC gets to say who can or cannot go on the air in the first place?

When will we understand that the FCC has always been in the pocket of big broadcasters or their lobbying organizations, and never really a guardian of the "public interest?"

Did you know that the radio spectrum, once considered an extremely limited commons, is now effectively so vast that ANYONE who wants to be a local broadcaster can do so for an embarrassingly small amount of money and effort, and that Free Radio Santa Cruz proves this every day?

When will we concede that, if anything, the FCC needs to be traffic cop of privately instigated activity on the airwaves, rather than gatekeeper or censor?