from the building-state-media dept
Whether or not it’s Jeff Bezos lobotomizing the Washington Put up, Elon Musk turning Twitter right into a far proper propaganda mill, or Larry Ellison shopping for CBS, CNN, and TikTok, the nation’s shittiest proper wing billionaires aren’t being refined about their quest to dominate what’s left of U.S. media. And Trump’s FCC is paving the best way by destroying no matter was left of our media consolidation guidelines.
After nabbing Paramount/CBS and a piece of TikTok, the Ellison household is now setting its sight on Warner Brothers — or what’s left of Warner Brothers after many years of pointless, dangerous mergers with AOL, AT&T, and Discovery. Whereas Warner Brothers is fielding bids for a buyout, Trump’s buddies on the proper wing New York Put up make it clear Trump desires the corporate to go to his different pal, Larry Ellison:
“The Trump administration favors Paramount Skydance to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery – and quite a few rival bidders are more likely to face stiff hurdles from US regulators within the blockbuster public sale, On The Cash has discovered.
That places Paramount Skydance – the newly fashioned media big headed by CEO David Ellison, the son of software program magnate and longtime Trump backer Larry Ellison – clearly within the catbird seat as Warner Bros. Discovery kicks off a course of to promote itself this week, in keeping with a authorities official with direct information of the matter.”
Larry Ellison’s rent of Bari Weiss, a shameless proper wing troll with no critical journalism expertise, is a part of a plan to show CBS right into a proper wing propaganda platform that’s pleasant to Trumpism and Netanyahu (the latter being significantly essential to Ellison). Possession of Warner Brothers would additionally give Ellison management of main retailers like CNN and media mainstays like HBO.
If Ellison is ready to additionally safe his talked about co-ownership of TikTok with Rupert Murdoch, there’s potential right here to show this amalgamation of retailers into one thing decidedly worse that Fox Information/WSJ/New York Put up because it pertains to proper wing propaganda. Very similar to Fox Information, the objective is clearly to construct a brand new state media propaganda machine, financed by decrease forehead infotainment fare (see the Ellison’s $7.7 acquisition of MMA rights).
However that’s simpler stated than performed. Warner Brothers desires greater than $60 billion, and Paramount/CBS is going through potential rival bids from the likes of Comcast (NBC Common), Apple, and Netflix. Firms which will or is probably not keen to again off their pursuits as a favor to our mad, fool king.
Even when the acquisition occurs, the form of merger debt created by Ellisons’ acquisition spree nearly all the time leads to disastrous post-merger outcomes. It’s what cooked AT&T’s tried domination of video promoting with its personal acquisition of Time Warner, resulting in no restrict of business chaos, layoffs, shittier product, and client worth hikes. AT&T wound up operating for the exits.
There’s additionally no indication that this bizarre mixture of nepobabies (David Ellison) and fail-upward brunchlords (Bari Weiss) can have any luck with their domination play. There are restricted appetites for journalism that kisses proper wing billionaire ass, on condition that’s a well-saturated market. They’re more likely to not simply wrestle with the evolution in new media, however speed up conventional media’s collapse.
Hopefully there will likely be some artistic, hungrier opportunists, with precise concepts, ready within the wings ready to take full benefit.
Filed Underneath: david ellison, disinformation, donald trump, journalism, larry ellison, media, media consolidation, propaganda, state media
Firms: paramount, skydance, warner bros. discovery
