THE PRINCIPLE OF MINIMUM DIFFERENTIATION. Via Milt's File, a Washington Post article about the crude content of many network television programs. Key observation:

Opponents of consolidation argue that the airwaves have gotten increasingly objectionable since the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which cleared the way for networks to buy more stations.

Less clear, however, is how much consolidation is really going on.

The major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox -- own 98 of the nation's 1,349 television stations. Individuals such as Goodmon, and companies such as Gannett Co., own the rest, which carry network programming as affiliates. Stations not owned by networks have more muscle to determine local programming than network-owned stations, he and others say.

Presumably it is easier for a locally owned station to affiliate with a network (including PBS) than it is to create all of its own programming (Chicago's WGN is one prominent exception to this generalization). The problem, then, is not with the concentration of ownership, rather it is with the persistence of the four major networks, a legacy of the New Deal era allocation of clear channel broadcasting stations. Furthermore, the Principle of Minimum Differentiation simply predicts that a small number of producers will offer products that serve the median preference. If the median preference is for crude programming, the fault, dear Brutus, lies not with the concentrated ownership.