Wrong. Our system is a capitalist one so as long as we aren't watching they aren't making money. Start a boycott and watch them clean up their act.
Not really... you forget the owners of the remaining media empires have vastly diversified holdings. The media outlet could be completely in the red, and they would still keep it running simply for propaganda sake.
The big six:
1. GE - $163.4 billion a year. Owners of NBC, Universal, MSNBC, Bravo, Sci-fi
2. Time Warner - $44.2 billion. (WB, Cnn, HBO, Cinemax, Cartoon Network, TBS, TNT, AOL, New Line Cinema... lots more)
3. Disney... the evil mouse. $34.3 billion - ABC, ESPN, Disney Channel (duh), A&E, Lifetime, and many more.
4. News Corp. $25.3 billion (they only pay about $200 m in taxes though) Fox News, 20th Century Fox, tons of newspapers, and many more.
5. CBS - $14.3 billion - CBS, UPN, Showtime
6. Viacom - $11.5 billion - Nickalodeon, VH1, BET, Comedy Central, Paramount Pictures.
Not to mention they all suckle at the corporate welfare teat, and Ron Paul is threatening that... so of course they are in defensive mode protecting their lucrative free income.