The irony is that the same people that wanted to show us the dangers of monopolies, have no problem with a government with the exact same powers which result in the exact same problems.
Government provisioning of something that is a natural monopoly would have all the same problems associated with a lack of competitive discipline, but none of the problems of monopoly markups by those interested in maximal profit.
Nor would there be any ability to censor or discriminate for private gain. Government censorship is possible either way, so is not a difference.
Henry George did advocate municipal provisioning of natural monopolies, but was in every other respect a believer in radical free markets.
