'A totalitarian regime' for news

"Political coverage is another area where the singular approach to the news would have a harmful impact on the public interest. No area of news reporting is more prone to a priori bias than political coverage. Deciding what to emphasize, what tone to employ, which facts to report and which facts to ignore – all of these decisions and more are part of the process of covering a political story. That is why the public interest is best served by having reports from a variety of writers from various backgrounds and geographic and cultural perspectives."

- Phil Trounstine, former communications director to Gov. Gray Davis, on media consolidation in the Bay Area. Trounstine is now the director of the Survey & Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University.