I'd have to dig into newspaper ownership back then which I'm not inclined to do. The consolidation the articles seem to speak about (and there are tons out there) discuss the Telecommunications Act of 1996, continuing what had taken place in the 80s under Reagan. Pretty sure that was during the cable era. As well, the replacement for the newspaper in many instances is the local news.
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/media-consolidation-means-less-local-news-more-right-wing-slant
2019, so a bit dated. But see the Sinclair and Nexstar stuff recently.
When I brought this up it was in response to the legitimate complaints about the normalization of trump within the news media however (NYT included. For my takes on the NYT just read up anything by Chris Hedges). Even the three networks of the past would have been screaming from the rooftops over the things this administration is doing and passing off as normal. To some extent that is this corporate consolidation. Thus Bezos killing op-eds recommending voting for Kamala. Thus the LA Times doing similar.
That said I agree with you here " is when the admin leans on Alphabet to make criticism of Trump unavailable in their search results. " and your concerns about social media consumption. So then we have Musk controlling X and now Larry Ellison to control Tik-Tok.
Speaking of Ellison, who is full bore Trumpian Maga, there is his son:
But wait, its gets better:
.
https://jacobin.com/2025/09/trump-ellison-tiktok-media-consolidation
Now granted, that's me moving the goal posts on you a bit, as that purchase has not actually taken place yet. But I have no faith it won't be allowed. Like I said, I think you and I overall agree. Well, I hope we do. Billionaires spoon feeding America isn't good for us.