In the public eye, three major investigations by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) into the dominance of the broadcast networks have appeared as battles between opposing forces with lively conflicts as the FCC combats monopolistic power in the name of public interest. In spite of the past investigations and the resulting regulations, however, broadcasting is still overwhelmingly dominated by a handful of large corporations whose policies are the most important determinants of broadcast structure and content. FCC policy has done little to alter this situation and in many cases has helped further it. Hence, the image projected by the investigations serves only to mask a cooperative relationship between the broadcast networks and the FCC. A survey of the history of the investigations shows that this process is made possible by the mythology of the marketplace, which presupposes competition in broadcasting without allowing for exploration of the possibility that marketplace economics are an inadequate framework for understanding broadcast structure. In this light, the deregulatory bent of the investigation completed in 1980, appears not as a departure from the approach of its predecessors, but a continuation of it. (Author)