Six Companies

Ninety percent of what you watch, hear, and read, owned by a handful of boards.

In 1983 roughly fifty companies controlled the majority of U.S. media; by the 2000s, after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 relaxed ownership caps, the usual count was six (GE/Comcast, Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, CBS). Documented in FCC filings and Ben Bagdikian's 'The Media Monopoly' editions, which tracked the shrinking number. The concentration is fact; the lore layer is intent — a unified editorial hand. The observable mechanism is duller and better documented: identical incentives producing similar coverage without anyone needing to conspire.