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Friends,
It’s frighteningly likely that two of the nation’s biggest news organizations — CBS News and CNN — along with CBS entertainment (home to Stephen Colbert) and Comedy Central (home to Jon Stewart) and HBO (John Oliver) and TikTok (where 1 out of 5 Americans now gets their news) — are all about to become one giant mega-media monopoly under the control of Trump allies and suck-ups, multibillionaire Larry Ellison and Ellison’s son, David.
If this happens, it will make Rupert Murdoch’s media empire of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post look small and scrupulous by comparison.
But there’s still a way to stop this. California Attorney General Rob Bonta yesterday led a coalition of 12 state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit challenging the giant merger. He said:
“Today, I am leading a coalition of states in challenging the proposed merger of Warner Bros. and Paramount and asking the court to block the deal. The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S. …. With this lawsuit, California and our sister states are fighting for free and fair markets, not rigged markets. America has no kings in government or our economy.”
States have become a major player in anti-monopoly efforts. Even after the Justice Department settled its suit against Live Nation, the states persuaded a jury that the entertainment giant operated an illegal monopoly. States also won a temporary halt to Nextar’s deal to buy the other major TV operator, Tegna.
But, of course, if the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger goes through, you can say goodbye to much of what’s left of America’s free press. Jon Stewart and John Oliver won’t be instantaneously silenced by this mega-media monopoly, but their contracts may not be renewed. After all, look at what CBS did to Stephen Colbert, whose show ended in May.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the algorithm on TikTok would be adjusted to reduce Trump criticism.
And a small army of producers and correspondents at CNN are likely to lose their jobs or be far more careful about what they report. Stories critical of Trump will be axed, as is now occurring at the late, great CBS News.
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How did we get to this point? Think greed, money, power, and Trump.
When the dark history of this sordid era is written, among the most shameful culprits — who put making humongous amounts of money for themselves way above the common good — will be Larry and David Ellison; Shari Redstone (former owner of Paramount, which owned CBS); and David Zaslav (CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery (owner of CNN).
In the summer of 2024, as Redstone and other of Paramount’s owners sought federal approval to sell Paramount to the Ellisons, they sucked up to Trump by settling Trump’s baseless lawsuit against CBS News for $16 million. (He had sued over how CBS News’s “60 Minutes” had edited an interview with former vice president Kamala Harris.)
Colbert called the settlement a “big fat bribe,” which it was.
To win further support from Trump for the sale, they announced the end of Colbert’s show (which, as I said, they ended in May). They cited economics, but Colbert’s had been the top-rated late night show on network television. The real reason for the cancellation was obvious: Colbert’s biting satirical criticism of Trump.
To cinch the deal, David Ellison promised to end diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at CBS. He also hired a right-wing “ombudsman,” Kenneth Weinstein, the former head of a conservative think tank. And he named as the new editor-in-chief of CBS News Bari Weiss, founder of the center-right opinion and news site The Free Press.
Trump was delighted. “They’re friends of mine. They’re big supporters of mine. And they’ll do the right thing,” he said, praising the acquisition and adding that CBS News had “great potential” with Weiss in charge and that he expected it to be “fairer.”
Fairer? Since Weiss took over, almost half of CBS News producers have walked, including legendary veteran Mary Walsh, who began her career under Walter Cronkite. As Walsh explained, “We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum. Honestly, I don’t know how to do that.”
Weiss also fired famed “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley, who had the temerity at a staff meeting to accuse Weiss of “murdering” “60 Minutes.” When he made that comment, others at the meeting applauded him.
Weiss also cut ties with “60 Minutes” producers Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Alfonsi had challenged Weiss’s decision to hold a “60 Minutes” segment on an El Salvador maximum-security prison where the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, including alleged gang members. She called the decision not to renew her contract “a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting” that “sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom.”
Vega was no less blunt. “In recent months, my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories. Reporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions…. Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both imposed and self-driven.”
Trump’s “fingerprints and DNA are all over this,” veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Croft said. “He’s been making threats against ‘60 Minutes’ and how he wanted it gone. And he finally got his wish.”
Trump had long fixated on “60 Minutes” — even before his lawsuit against CBS News — calling the show “a dishonest Political Operative disguised as News.”
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Now, CNN is in the crosshairs because it’s part of Warner Bros. Discovery, which the Ellisons are about to acquire — unless the state AGs can stop them.
Trump has been as critical of CNN”s coverage as he’s been of CBS News. In December, according to The Wall Street Journal, David Ellison “offered assurances to Trump administration officials that if he bought Warner Bros. Discovery, he’d make sweeping changes to CNN.”
Why would the Ellisons spend billions (and go deep into debt) to buy Warner Bros. Discovery? Wealth and power — along with additional wealth and power that Trump can deliver. Larry Ellison is the second-or-third richest person in America (depending on the day and who’s counting). He owns Oracle, which runs much of the digital backbone of the nation’s commerce and government.
Even before the Ellisons sweetened their offer for Warner Bros. Discovery and pushed Netflix out of the running,