The stranglehold that a dozen giant corporations now exert on media in the US will tighten even more in the wake of a federal court ruling. The ill effects of corporate media control such as mind numbing content, self-censorship to serve advertisers, neglect of minority opinions and dissent, sensationalized if-it-bleeds-it-leads news, plagiarism of PR as 'news,' are all set to worsen. Schiesel and Carter write in the New York Times, "Investment bankers, start your engines. That was essentially the message to Wall Street and the media industry yesterday as a federal appeals court in Washington unleashed what is expected to be a major wave of deal making, with the titans of the television business snapping up their smaller brethren."