If you look at the market prices of newspapers, radios, TV stations, you'll see that they depend little on their earnings. The buyer pays for influence on the public opinion.
How much do you think will FB support be worth to GS during the next bailout? In understanding what are the common fears, arguments for and against. Even now GS manages many deals, parts of the society don't like - outsourcing, green house options trade, arab and chinese investors, etc.
I don't know whether your first statement is true, but I'm skeptical. Certainly there are some cases where newspapers continue to operate at a loss over many years, but in those cases we hear rumblings about hostile takeovers.
Regardless, I don't think GS comes close to getting that kind of editorial control or information access with this deal.
Although you do suggest the interesting point that Facebook private messages and even public postings could be a very valuable source of insider trading information.
