At yesterday's FCC hearings, various celebrities and politicians gave strong arguments for more diverse ownership of media outlets, according to Carl DiOrio in the Hollywood Reporter.

Most of them were pretty narrow in their focus. SAG vp Anne-Marie Johnson told an ancient anecdote about Marcy Carsey pitching The Cosby Show to ABC who were insensitve brutes so she took it to NBC. (And that could never happen today? SAG should be more worried about reality-bots replacing actors.) Stephen J. Cannell had a similar tale of woe. R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills was the crowd favorite, as he denounced media consolidation.

That's all well and good, but one presenter shared an argument that probably no media watcher could have considered anything but simple-minded:

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, said the Tribune Co. should be forced to sell KTLA-TV or the Los Angeles Times and suggested the concentration of media ownership in the market had prevented a contrary point of view from surfacing when the Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning series on medical abuses forced cuts at a local emergency room.

So, if LA had another newspaper, the perky side of King-Drew's repeated errors, mess-ups and neglect would have had an airing? Is Waters in favor of more good news, in general? Why do newspapers print such depressing stuff anyway?