Fighting media monopolies. (The Consumer Union Perspective).

To keep up with the news in your community you may read a daily newspaper, watch the news on a local TV station, or visit a Web site owned by one of them. Local media outlets help people stay informed about what's happening in their towns and beyond. They help citizens understand issues, form opinions, and make choices. And they serve as watchdogs, uncovering corruption and other scandals that the public needs to know about to make democracy flourish.

In today's technological world, we seem to have a wealth of choices for news and information. Yet only a handful of large companies own the media on which most consumers depend for news:

* Five conglomerates dominate television news: AOL Time Warner, Disney (ABC), GE (NBC), News Corp. (Fox), and Viacom (CBS and UPN). They own TV, radio, and cable stations; networks; program production companies; and affiliated Web sites. Together, the conglomerates control an estimated two-thirds or more of the programming that appears on prime-time television, including most major news channels and programs.

* Most metropolitan areas have one major newspaper, often owned by a chain.

* Two cable systems, Comcast and Time Warner, serve nearly half of all cable subscribers. Some 95 percent of households have access to only one cable company.

Consumers are best served when media companies are independently owned. Diversity among media owners not only promotes competition but also helps ensure that people can find a variety of information and viewpoints.

The Federal Communications Commission designed rules to limit the number of media outlets that a company could own in a single community and nationwide. The nation's largest media companies are now lobbying ...