From a historical perspective, the Democratic support for corporate media stretches back at least as far as Lyndon Johnson. He and his wife were television station owners, and over their lives continued to grow their media holdings.

That, presumably, is one of the reasons Johnson knew how screwed he was when he (reportedly) said "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."

Interestingly President Johnson's wikipedia page doesn't seem to make reference to the media holdings, but his wife Lady Bird Johnson's page does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Bird_Johnson#Business_care...