XM and Siruis, the two big satellite radio companies, are doing poorly and want to merge. They're applying for exemption from anti-trust regulation to do so. Let’s quickly run down the counts in the indictment for aggravated assault on common business sense here:

1. Two companies in the same market with the same business model are both doing badly. How could merging help them to carry out that same business model better?

2. Granting point 1 for a moment, how would this not be a monopoly?

3. Assuming away #1 and #2, how could this merger possibly result in what Sirus chief Mel Karmazin calls “unprecedented choice for consumers”?

People I know who have satellite radio say it’s great, so I’m going to grant that despite my grumpy adherence to “free” radio (I’m fully paid up to NPR, so get off my case) there is some value in what XM and Sirius deliver. I can only assume that those firms are having trouble capturing that value and delivering it to their shareholders. I’m too much of a free marketeer to be a knee-jerk supporter of anti-trust regulation, but this merger smells like a cynical ploy to achieve nothing less than a monopoly in order to raise prices to a level that will save these sorry businesses.

I guess delivering better content in order to charge a premium and win customers is too 20th-century an idea for these satellite barons. Maybe if I put my NPR totebag over my head, this will all go away.