from the same-shit,-different-merger-(SSDM) dept
All modern major U.S. media mergers follow the same trajectory. Executives pump out a bunch of pre-merger lies about job creation and innovation that are parroted by a lazy access press, followed by the rubber stamping by corrupt regulators, followed by oodles of price hikes, layoffs, and quality erosion caused by panicked efforts to pay down preposterous merger debt.
Rinse, wash, and repeat.
After promising this for a while, CBS last week announced it was laying off around six percent of its workforce, or around 60 employees after the company was acquired by right wing billionaire Larry Ellison last year. The company also announced it would be destroying the 100 year old CBS News Radio (there was no indication of what, if anything, they planned to do with archival history).
CBS News boss Bari Weiss offered this statement in the wake of the layoffs:
“Today we are reducing the size of our workforce, and employees who are affected will be notified by the end of the day. We recognize that this is a difficult time for those who will be leaving CBS News. Because these aren’t just names on a list. They are talented, committed colleagues who have been critical to our success. We’ll treat them all with care and respect.
It’s no secret that the news business is changing radically, and that we need to change along with it. New audiences are burgeoning in new places, and we are pressing forward with ambitious plans to grow and invest so that we can be there for them. That means some parts of our newsroom must get smaller to make room for the things we must build to remain competitive.
But these are very hard choices and today is a difficult day. This is a tough message to receive at any time, and especially in the middle of an exceptionally intense news cycle. This organization is working its heart out to deliver for our audience. We’re so grateful to all of you, and we thank you for handling this difficult news with compassion.”
You’re to ignore, of course, that Bari Weiss appears to have absolutely no idea what she’s doing, outside of a generalized and obvious sense that she’d like to make the network even more friendly to right wing autocrats like Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Weiss’ inaugural “town hall” with opportunistic right wing grifter Erika Kirk was a ratings dud, Weiss’ new nightly news broadcast has been an error-prone hot mess, and her delay of a 60 Minutes story about Trump concentration camps continues to plague the network and cause a continued revolt among remaining journalists, who are tripping over themselves in a rush to the exits.
There’s likely to be even greater layoffs as the Ellisons’ pursue their even more problematic acquisition of Warner Brothers (and CBS and NBC), adding significantly even more debt to the company at a very precarious time for traditional television and Hollywood. It’s something the network’s unionized employees are well aware of:
Again, the solution to this is to have a genuine antitrust renaissance in the U.S, and block all and every instance of pointless “growth for growth’s sake” consolidation.
These deals do nothing but generate short-term stock bumps (sometimes), tax breaks, and delusion among the brunchlord extraction class that they’re “savvy dealmakers” as they engage in financial acrobatics to create the illusion of perpetual growth.
These fictions are all aided by a lazy press damaged from the very same pointless consolidation. This particular merger is complicated by the fact that the Trump-loyal Ellisons very clearly see Victor Orban’s autocratic-friendly media in Hungary as a model worth emulating. The only bright spot is that nobody, just like Warner Bros last few suitors, appears to have any idea what they’re actually doing.
The problem is, even if the Ellisons and autocrats fail completely and CBS collapses, they’ve “succeeded” in destroying another journalistic outlet on their way to what they hope will be total U.S. ideological domination.
Filed Under: bari weiss, cbs, cbs news, consolidation, david ellison, journalism, larry ellison, layoffs, media, mergers, radio
Companies: cbs, paramount
