Good post but a bit of a wall of text. I would break it up like this:

My stats will not be exact here, but pretty darn close. In 1990 fifty (50) corporations controlled 90% of broadcast media in the U.S. In 2016 five (5) major corporations control 90% of U.S. broadcast media. How did this happen? It's called the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which opened the floodgates to media consolidation. In place since the 1930s, under FDR, federal law prevented major media consolidation to keep any one corporation or individual from controlling media markets to prevent absolute control of those markets. So, who wiped out these valuable laws to protect broadcast consumers from media monopolies? His name was President Bill Clinton with help from his buddies in a Republican Congress. (This Act also cost 100,000+ telecom workers their jobs over a two-year period, but that's another matter.)

I was an applicant for the last commercial radio station frequency in Austin. Following rules and guidelines to protect and serve the public interest in place since the 1930s, my application was moving forward. It was a very complex ten-year process, but then owning a broadcast media property is a major responsibility - or it used to be.

Then the Telecom Act of 1996 passed and things changed in a major way. No longer was a broadcast property owner required to live in the community his property served, nor prevented from ownership of multiple media properties creating a media monopoly, etc. It was now a feeding frenzy all about the money. Bottom line: The laws in place to protect and serve the public interest since the 1930s were out. Big-buck media consolidators were in. The FCC was planning to auction off all pending application and broadcast frequencies to the highest bidder. Worse, major media corporations could pretty much own as much media in any market their vulture capitalists could buy. Hence, the media consolidation we see in today.

I worked hard and played by the rules, and there were many specific federally mandated rules, for over ten (10) years. All that went out the window with the Telecom Act of 1996. Broadcast stations and frequencies were now basically sold to the highest bidder and media companies allowed to engage in massive consolidation. How did major media cover the 1996 Telecom Act - a very major news story? With a 30 second spot at about 4:00 a.m. on ABC overnight news! So, if folks ever wonder why major corporate media isn't covering Bernie. It's called the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and we have then President Bill Clinton acting with a Republican Congress to thank for it. After Bernie breaks up the too big to fail banks, I'm hoping he'll take on the too big to tell the truth major media consolidators.