In the current debate over whether national rules limiting how many outlets a media company can swallow up should be preserved, a central claim made by Big Media is that the Internet has turned the media world on its head -- and that they have no more power than a blogger in their basement.

A new study by Free Press, published to coincide with the Chicago FCC hearing on Sept. 20 soundly refutes this backdoor argument. This is simply one more wild claim made by Big Media that falls apart when any effort is made to look beyond the surface.

While no one can deny the opportunity created by the Internet (if it stays in its current form and we don't lose Net Neutrality), it has yet to change the dominance of traditional media when it comes to local news.

In a filing to the FCC, Tribune Co. pointed to 13 websites in the Chicago area they claimed were direct competitors. We did them one better and analyzed 38 independent Chicago-specific websites, including Chicagoist and Gapers Block (See the full report here).

There are a variety of reasons for this continued dominance by traditional media, not the least of which is that bloggers -- and certainly the ones focused on local events -- do this work in their spare time. So like everyday Chicagoans, these Web sites rely on traditional media outlets to provide them with information about the serious issues confronting the community.

As with our two previous studies on the topic, we demonstrate through analysis of Web site traffic and content that the blogs put forth as competitors by Tribune produce minimal original reporting (even less so in the context of hard news topics). Furthermore, many blogs hyperlink directly to traditional media articles and simply opine about what they read. This study found that over half of the hard news stories linked directly to traditional media websites.

It is common practice to identify errors and omissions made by the MSM in the blogosphere, but the blogs do not have the resources to do this initial reporting themselves. While helpful, this certainly does not make them a serious competitor. This newly published report is just one more argument in the tidal wave that is the movement to stop consolidation of the media.