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Those industries that are seen to be working in the common good [...] must abide by certain rules of conduct. To some extent its something that already happens with the FCC, and lobbyists seem to undo most of that anyway.
I'm kind of a reductionist in most things, and politics is no exception. When you look at this issue, like so many in this country at this point in history, it seems to boil down to a regulatory system that's been captured by the industry that it's supposed to be overseeing.
Historically, it's been shown that the only way to combat organized money is by organizing people. It's an open question, of course, whether there's not so much organized money out there that it'll overwhelm any attempt to recapture public oversight.
The cherry on top of this shit sundae is the resigned cynicism (to a very real extent consciously encouraged by those in power, IMHO) that 'the money élite always control the media, and they always will, why are you so shocked, nothing to see here, move on." It's hard for me to think of an attitude more corrosive to a democracy, but there it is.
