Decentralisation is important too!
I recently watched Orwell Rolls in his Grave [DivX, torrent, flash]. It's a documentary about the state and detriments of the conglomeration of media and government. It's kind of a high school version of Manufacturing Consent: NCatM, but it's modernized with excellent and recent examples such as the Bush on Bush Florida usurpation.
It's mentioned in the documentary that in a democracy media has an obligation to report exhaustively and factually. In fact, (because this is United-Sates-centric) there was once an FCC requirement to report an other side of state issues in order to provide both parties a voice. That's a certain peculiarity to the typical rights-based ideologies we often hear from the U.S. on issues of private ownership. I suppose too often they are portrayed with shotgun in hand "I shoot who I want (when it's on my property)." I initially surprised myself to side in support of the international media corporation, that it oughtn't be obligated to provide opposing perspectives. It seems inconsistent, for instance, I don't believe I need to provide space to quote an objection when I write a paragraph on my blog, nor if I wrote a book should I need references or quotes rejecting my thesis -what is it about the fundamental nature of media that requires them to broadcast anything to detriment their aims. I think Canada is close to correctness by means of providing a publicly funded independent media outlet -to flaw, our current administration has sought to reduce funding which reduces or endangers the ability of the outlet to provide exhaustive, unbiased, and unboughten reports.
But the need for accurate and exhaustive reporting is so great that I think a media outlet should be completely segregated from government while accountable to the populace in a manner similar to government. Initial legislation would enact priorities and objectives so to prevent programming to wavering into the timeless classics of Lost or House.
My imagination is architecting too much here, suffice it to say, it's a good documentary with a few problems, but draws attention to the need for a well-informed democracy.