Consider further that there's only 6 media companies in the country and they're all huge mega-conglomerates with billions of dollars in government contracts on

Consider further that there's only 6 media companies in the country and they're all huge mega-conglomerates with billions of dollars in government contracts on the line. A person in a position of political power can easily nudge a contract to a competitor if you don't play ball, costing you millions in a single contract. I mean sure, the government needs things from the media too. We saw CNN give Hillary the secret debate questions during the primary. Rather than going public with this atrocity Clinton just fucking used the information. Literally one person from CNN got fired, but she's got a job at the DNC now so it's totes cool. I think it's safe to assume that this sort of thing is far more common than we'd like to admit.