Consolidation won't save the media

[Commentary] Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), whose hometown San Francisco Chronicle is in trouble, asked Attorney General Eric Holder to consider loosening antitrust laws to help out struggling newspapers by allowing more media mergers. AG Holder responded by saying he is open to revisiting the rules. Pelosi's request sounds innocuous at first - after all, struggling newspapers seem to need all the help they can get. But opening the door to more media consolidation is not the cure for the crisis in journalism. More of this bad medicine will only weaken reporting and worsen the health of our democracy. How to support serious journalism and local coverage in the new media landscape is a complicated question that surely requires a menu of answers, forward-looking policy ideas and lots of experimentation. But we know what won't work: the exact same policies that got us into this mess in the first place. Media consolidation is the problem, not the answer.