Macbindle, I don't think you are defending Sky, that I gladly give you. Clearly you have half a brain instead of just following tribal/nationalist/etc instincts, at least at the level of what you express. This I take as a signal of seeing the forest for the trees, ie. cycling has systemic doping and governance problems, not just sky.
However, you decide to use the half a brain to rather condescendingly ram down ideas such as:
"everyone does it, level playing field, bla bla"
"accept it as what it is"
"dominance via corporate/financial superiority is completely kosher, it is up to others to muster the financial means to play the game"
Extensive quoting would provide sources for statements like these, and others, but I cannot be bothered. Posters will know what I am referring to.
In my book, this sort of "more cynical than thou" type of reasoning is much, much lower than the interns' babble a la hamsockings, because it is based on reasoning in the first place. For a tactic like this is effectively defending the status quo. In social sciences, for instance, there is a very fine line between trying to give the most brutally realist and cynical depiction of what is and ending up with providing justfications and legitimation for that very same thing.
Of course, it might be that for you there are no problems in cycling. Then such a position would be genuine. Let's just say that I have my doubts about that.
Now, criticism of "what is" is rather explicit in a lot of posts here. For a considerable proportion of posters, I would wager, criticism of Sky is actually a proxy for criticising the status quo by criticising its most blatant external expressions. There is pure ol' hate too, but at least a considerable part is due to displeasure with the status quo.
And the tension rises from there. Not from whether you defend sky or not, which really is secondary.
And me? Well, I am done watching and mostly done posting. If it was not for sky, another corporate entity would suck life outta cycling given the way it is governed at the moment. And I would be the first to start throwing stones, because I dislike dominance in society. Because if cycling amounts to a yet another totally administered corporate sphere of the culture industry, where might (money, dope, nationalism) is right, it offers me nothing.
Now, feel free to mock me. My intention, btw, was not to attack you but to put the debate on a ground more general than she said he said, and this was the best my half-a-brain could come up with.