The Wall Street Journal outlined what its newswriters think are the four priorities of the incoming FCC chairman Brendan Carr, assuming he gets confirmed. On the whole, those priorities foster reduced government involvement in business decisions and increased business competition. One of those priorities drew my eye, though:

Clearing a path for media consolidation

One consolidation possibility: Meta or Alphabet or Truth Social acquiring one or more of the legacy broadcast media: ABC, or ESPN (OK, that’s a legacy cable medium, but my point stands), or….

That would create some serious consolidation, and I’m not convinced that degree, or consolidation across those milieus, would be a good idea.

Still, let the markets determine the utility of such acquisitions, within government’s optimal oversight: blocking abuse of monopoly power rather than blocking the monopoly itself. Aside from the economic forces involved, the one is a reaction to an actual misbehavior, the other would be a preemptive action regarding a purely speculative outcome.

One of those would remain consistent with the American style of jurisprudence, and that’s to the general good.