re: #204 Obdicut
You are broadening the meaning of what I said to undermine it. I never said can not possibly be. I mentioned focus and format.
By my “function” definition they are separate. You are so attached to ownership on this. I am not. GE own all kinds of things. They are still all separate in function.

If we look at MSM definition at Wiki, the focus of the definition is news sources, not checking the facts.

Mainstream media
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Mainstream media (sometimes referred to by the acronym MSM[citation needed]) are those media disseminated via the largest distribution channels, which therefore represent what the majority of media consumers are likely to encounter. The term also denotes those media generally reflective of the prevailing currents of thought, influence, or activity.[1]

Large news conglomerates, including newspapers and broadcast media, which underwent successive mergers in the U.S. and elsewhere at an increasing rate beginning in the 1990s, are often referenced by the term. This concentration of media ownership has raised concerns of a homogenization of viewpoints presented to news consumers. Consequently, the term mainstream media has been widely used in conversation and the blogosphere, often in oppositional, pejorative, or dismissive senses, in discussion of the mass media and media bias.

Media organizations such as CBS and the New York Times set the tone for other smaller news organizations by creating conversations which cascade down to the smaller news organizations lacking the resources to do more individual research and coverage, that primary method being through the Associated Press where many news organizations get their news. This results in a recycling effect wherein organic thought is left to the mainstream that choose the conversation and smaller organizations recite absent of a variance in perspective.[2]