Media Conglomerates: Are they good for us?

One of my biggest pet peeves with media conglomeration is the way that it smothers innovation. As long as there is some sort of competition out there, it seems as if company's innovate and come up with bright ideas. Once a company has achieved a pinnacle and receives little competition it would seem as if they would start to go into a cyclical mode that produces only what is good for them. However, I'm going to argue that this may not all be true given all the different trends that keep propping up in America. True, I still don't like GIGANTIC companies and probably never will, BUT I don't think that they are out of reach yet.
Look at what the internet is doing to the media...For example Google, I believe that the media conglomerates are starting to feel threatened by the upstart company. Viacom's lawsuit against Google's sister company YouTube is a prime example. Google is in its own mode of buying up key internet sites and becoming one of the most innovative companies our country has ever seen.
Also, I would like to mention that to those worried that news reporting will be hurting if the media conglomerates all band together..... Not to worry, too much independent news reporting on the internet and too much competition between reporters hired by the SAME company to affect that too much.
The United States instituted checks and balances to attempt to keep its country on the right track. One of those checks and balances was laws against companies buying out all the competition. Have they stayed true to that? Well, they forced AT&T to break up. They held an anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft over something in their operating system. Unfortunately, money seems to be the over-powering decision maker in Washington these days.
But is the consumer really that affected?
It is important for us to realize that the consumer tells these companies what to produce... and that, my friends, is what they produce.