"Someone needs to watch these assholes."So true. I usually agree with Lessig about most issues, but this one, not so much.
Media consolidation is bad. Why demolish the FCC? First of all, the FCC might as well not even exist for all it has done to "open up" competition or competitive pricing. "On June 2, 2003 the Federal Communications Commission voted to relax certain market ownership restrictions." (http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/fccchanges.html) That, coupled with the already sorry state of media ownership in 2000 spelled disaster.
http://www.mediachannel.org/ownership/chart.shtml
When the laws that had originally been implemented to prevent monopolistic behavior were relaxed, these media giants were allowed to get even bigger, things really snowballed downhill. I don't know anybody who has actually received cheaper service rates from any of the major telecoms. Fewer commercials? Not that either. Most of us have actually noticed a significant increase in the amount we're paying for everything from cell phone service to land lines to cable, and on top if it all, more commercials.