While you van argue there is more centralization in a digital world, compared to the analog news distribution, I don&#x27;t think the difference is that great.  When the news barons owned the papers and drove agendas, it was arguably more prone to political manipulation than today given anyone can throw up a blog or a community online or an email group.<p>I fear people overestimate the openness of privately run newspapers, they even have &quot;editors&quot;.  Twitter et al don&#x27;t have &quot;editors&quot; overseeing content.<p>I think we&#x27;re better off today than we were in the heyday of newspapers.  And you&#x27;re free to print or electronically distribute your political pamphlets.