In Corporate America the only way to beat the competition is to own it.

The New York Times this morning has a disturbing story about local television stations cutting costs by pretty much combining competing news operations. It’s often resulting in the same exact reporting no matter what channel you watch.

American media has been consolidated into the hands of about three multinational corporations, and now those three multinationals are squeezing profits by moving towards one single news source.

The airwaves belong to the public, the networks rent those airwaves from us with the promise of serving our community. We are being left in the dark.

Even as Internet use rises, local television remains the No. 1 source of news for most Americans….

But the owners of stations have gradually reduced costs and, arguably, competition. Building on the longtime sharing of cameras and helicopters by stations, the first “shared services agreements,” for newsrooms, and “local marketing agreements,” for ad sales, were put in place more than a decade ago.

Local TV Stations Cut Costs by Sharing News Operations – NYTimes.com.