John H. Beck states in "The Free Market" that "Even a
socialist state desiring to allow the publication of all views must impose censorship
in the sense of not publishing everything that somebody might wish published.
Scarcity imposes the same restraint on publication in a market economy, but,
while in the centrally directed socialist state the one state authority will
decide who is to publish, in the market economy there are a multitude of owners
of the scarce resources, any one of whom may decide to use them for the
publication of some particular writer's work. 
In either society a writer may
fail to get his work published, but in the market economy the dispersion of
control over resources gives the writer many more chances of persuading someone
who has the power to publish his work."
This reminds me of a story mentioned in Lawrence Lessig's book
"Free Culture": "In 1969, Normal Lear created a pilot for All in the Family. He took the pilot to ABC. The network didn't
like it. It was too edgy, they told Lear... Rather than comply, Lear simply too
the shower elsewhere. CBS was happy to have the series." But after the merging
and consolidation of many of the production houses, Lessig writes "This
narrowing has an effect on what is produced. The product of such large and
concentrated networks is increasingly homogeneous. Increasingly safe.
Increasingly sterile." Today the vast majority of television shows are produced
by a tiny number of production houses and the vast majority of media outlets aggregate
from few news sources.
Interestingly enough, Beck criticizes the limited numbers of
socialist creative outlets. Lessig criticizes the limited number of outlets in an
increasingly monopolized capitalist system. One must ask if there is much
difference between a liberal, open-minded socialist publishing house and a
publishing cartel of two or three quasi-monopolistic companies that share the
same standards. The first is subject to censorship of the state. The second by
censorship of the private market; fear that crossing the line on some subject
might scare away advertisers.
"Freedom of press" becomes a hollow concept in both cases. That's where I think community radio, publishing, and
reporting is crucial. I am a faithful believer in the drastic liberalization of
radio and television frequencies, web development courses for the youth, and
the equipping of community centers with recording and transmission capabilities.
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