The world keeps spinning, and corporations keep getting bigger.

It was announced Monday that America Online, the world’s largest provider of Internet services, was buying Time Warner, the largest media conglomerate in the world.

Seen by privacy advocates as “Orwellian,” Gerald Levin, Time Warner chairman and the man slated to be the new CEO of AOL Time Warner, dismissed those claims, according to Reuters.

“This is not just about big business. This is not just about money,” Levin said. “This is about making a better world for people because we now have the technology and the instruments to do that.”

Sounds good.

But anyone who has spent any time on AOL knows the thing is one big mall.

AOL makes the already commercial Internet seem like a tribute to frugality and simplicity.

But when the biggest media giant in the world hops in bed with the fastest growing representative of the future of media, we should all step back and here is why.

Corporations do not have your best interests at heart.

They couldn’t care less about the public good, the truth or your right to know.

They want your money. If they have to sugarcoat reality and push entertainment as news to get it, they will.

And the more media outlets one megacorporation owns, the less likely it is you will ever hear any news about one of their subsidiaries.

When was the last time you heard any bad press about Disney on ABC?

When was the last time an NBC news program covered topics that contradicted the interests of GE?

Time Warner owns CNN, so you can now forget about news reports on how slow AOL is and how dissatisfied customers are with their service.

In order for facts to come to light and truths to be told, they cannot be held captive by the interests of big money.

Democracy can’t flourish in an environment where truth, dissatisfaction and dissent can’t see the light of day because they threaten the bottom line.

While the advantages of combined cable, telephone and Internet service may be appealing to those who see any technological improvement as good for the human race, we should all be wary.

Faster Internet access isn’t as important as access to the truth. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to get this one.

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Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Sara Ziegler, Greg Jerrett, Kate Kompas, Carrie Tett and David Roepke.