| | | ....Of the 19 centibillionaires on Forbes’s wealth tracker, at least six have significant control of American media. Some of them want more. One of them is Larry Ellison, the second-richest man in the world and a certified friend of Trump. The Ellison family is poised to make a series of deals that would make it one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of corporate media. The question of who will own TikTok — a platform that has more than 170 million users in the United States — looks as though it’s finally going to be resolved, after Trump signed an executive order that will hand control over to a coterie of his admirers that will probably include Ellison.
Ellison’s son, David, took control of Paramount this summer in a deal that reportedly came with political concessions. The Paramount portfolio includes CBS, among other media brands. Credible reporting says another merger is on the horizon, between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns — among many things — CNN. If this merger goes through (and industry watchers expect it will face little opposition), CNN, CBS News and a host of lifestyle stations will all be under Ellison family leadership. They aren’t pitching this deal as the MAGA Media Empire industry analysts see it as, but the Ellison family also hasn’t signaled a commitment to remain nonpartisan or independent.
Major media changes usually sound like just inside baseball. But the consolidation happening now — which used to be anathema to antitrust regulation — is bigger than simply industry gossip. It is part of a larger trend of monopolistic control that weakens our civic health. It is also a sign of this administration’s direct influence over the press, of citizens’ First Amendment rights and our very sense of reality. This consolidation wave isn’t only about amassing wealth; it is also part of a political project to make all information partisan.
The past two weeks showed us what that future looks like. The administration and its deep-pocketed allies sent up a trial balloon: Mourn, or else.
Trump is known for saying a lot of things that he can’t or won’t back up. This time, the threats are real.
The president of the United States said that he believes critical stories about him are “ illegal.” (They are not.) The State Department gave that message teeth, with its leaders saying the.....
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