McChesney’s essay can, in many ways, be read as a call to arms.  His goal is clear—he wants to reveal the true nature of the nation’s largest media conglomerates as being corrupt, insidious, and detrimental to the wellbeing of our democracy in order to provoke popular discontent and significant change within the system.  At times, he makes very powerful arguments.  But, sometimes he sounds too much like one consumed by conspiracy theories.  Namely, whenever something might look bad, he interprets it to not only be as bad as it seems, but most likely worse. While this may often be an accurate interpretation of events, after 75 pages of his essay, it begins to see a bit over determined (he never awknoledges that it could be otherwise; he mentions no flaws in his argument or examples of the existence of conglomerates benefiting the consumer, as Baker readily will do).  Nevertheless, McChesney does hit on some very important ideas regarding the media’s integral role in keep our democracy healthy, and the fact that for many people it is not just a question of entertainment.  Ideally, McChesney wants to see the media cease to be an industry like any other.  After all, a TV is not just a toaster that projects a picture.  The essay is well written and a pleasure to read, even if the rhetoric can get a bit tiring.

This article does not specifically talk about media companies, although it does mention them in the context of the current waves of spin offs and having conglomerates split up after not realizing the promised synergies before the mergers.  Indeed, there seems to be a penalty for conglomerates right now, such that the sum of the parts is probably worth more.  The idea behind many mergers was that the companies together would be more valuable than their individual assets added together, although it has since been proven that that is not the case.  According to Media Economics, Theory and Practice, 75% of all mergers and acquisitions fail to deliver on promises made to investors.