from the building-state-media dept
Whether it’s Jeff Bezos lobotomizing the Washington Post, Elon Musk turning Twitter into a far right propaganda mill, or Larry Ellison buying CBS, CNN, and TikTok, the country’s shittiest right wing billionaires aren’t being subtle about their quest to dominate what’s left of U.S. media. And Trump’s FCC is paving the way by destroying whatever was left of our media consolidation rules.
After nabbing Paramount/CBS and a chunk of TikTok, the Ellison family is now setting its sight on Warner Brothers — or what’s left of Warner Brothers after decades of pointless, harmful mergers with AOL, AT&T, and Discovery. While Warner Brothers is fielding bids for a buyout, Trump’s buddies at the right wing New York Post make it clear Trump wants the company to go to his other friend, Larry Ellison:
“The Trump administration favors Paramount Skydance to buy Warner Bros. Discovery – and a number of rival bidders are likely to face stiff hurdles from US regulators in the blockbuster auction, On The Money has learned.
That puts Paramount Skydance – the newly formed media giant headed by CEO David Ellison, the son of software magnate and longtime Trump backer Larry Ellison – clearly in the catbird seat as Warner Bros. Discovery kicks off a process to sell itself this week, according to a government official with direct knowledge of the matter.”
Larry Ellison’s hire of Bari Weiss, a shameless right wing troll with no serious journalism experience, is part of a plan to turn CBS into a right wing propaganda platform that’s friendly to Trumpism and Netanyahu (the latter being particularly important to Ellison). Ownership of Warner Brothers would also give Ellison control of major outlets like CNN and media mainstays like HBO.
If Ellison is able to also secure his talked about co-ownership of TikTok with Rupert Murdoch, there’s potential here to turn this amalgamation of outlets into something decidedly worse that Fox News/WSJ/New York Post as it pertains to right wing propaganda. Much like Fox News, the goal is clearly to build a new state media propaganda machine, financed by lower brow infotainment fare (see the Ellison’s $7.7 acquisition of MMA rights).
But that’s easier said than done. Warner Brothers wants more than $60 billion, and Paramount/CBS is facing potential rival bids from the likes of Comcast (NBC Universal), Apple, and Netflix. Companies that may or may not be willing to back off their pursuits as a favor to our mad, idiot king.
Even if the acquisition happens, the kind of merger debt created by Ellisons’ acquisition spree almost always results in disastrous post-merger outcomes. It’s what cooked AT&T’s attempted domination of video advertising with its own acquisition of Time Warner, leading to no limit of industry chaos, layoffs, shittier product, and consumer price hikes. AT&T wound up running for the exits.
There’s also no indication that this weird combination of nepobabies (David Ellison) and fail-upward brunchlords (Bari Weiss) will have any luck with their domination play. There are limited appetites for journalism that kisses right wing billionaire ass, given that’s a well-saturated market. They’re likely to not just struggle with the evolution in new media, but accelerate traditional media’s collapse.
With any luck there will be some creative, hungrier opportunists, with actual ideas, waiting in the wings prepared to take full advantage.
Filed Under: david ellison, disinformation, donald trump, journalism, larry ellison, media, media consolidation, propaganda, state media
Companies: paramount, skydance, warner bros. discovery
