Media Consolidation

Buying All The Media?

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Article in Common Dreams by Robert Reich, 11/26/25

Headline:  “The Billionaires Destroying Our Media System and What To Do About It”

Subhead: “In an era when wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few individuals who have bought up key media, there is a growing danger that the public will not be getting the truth it needs to function in this democracy”

“The third-richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

“The fourth-richest man owns The Washington Post and Amazon MGM Studios.

“Another billionaire owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post.

“Why are the ultra-rich buying up so much of the media? Vanity may play a part, but there’s a more pragmatic — some might say sinister — reason. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/billionaire-ownership-media

Control All Media

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Article in The Nation by Ben Schwartz, 11/21/25

Headline:  “Trump’s Quest for Total Media Control”

Subhead:  “Look beyond the petty celebrity feuds, and you’ll see a plan to transform American media companies into outlets for MAGA agitprop.”

“. . .Colbert, Kimmel, and Meyers are just comedy collateral damage in Trump’s pursuit of his bigger goals. Trump’s brain operates simultaneously at the pettiest and grandest levels of venality and scheming. He could have Brendan Carr make private calls to Comcast executives to let them know what’s coming. Instead, Trump went after Meyers to show he’s always in there slugging—but also to remind Comcast of what he’d already done to Colbert and Kimmel.

“It’s easy to get distracted by Trump’s celebrity feuds, but we should never lose sight of Trump’s master plan: to push our media world so far to the far right that he’s never again asked about his sexually predatory or homicidal friends.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/trump-skydance-comcast-wbd/

One Company – One Media?

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Article in Freepress by Staff, 11/19/25

Headline:  “Proposed Nexstar-Tegna Merger Is Blatant Violation of the Law Prohibiting One Company from Too Much Control of Local Airwaves”

Subhead:  “The $6.2 billion deal would also violate the FCC’s few remaining local-ownership limits in nearly 30 markets. In some, it would leave Nexstar in control of three of the top-four-ranked stations.”

“On Tuesday, Nexstar Media Group announced that it had filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission seeking agency approval to acquire Tegna, Inc.’s broadcast licenses in a proposed $6.2 billion deal first reported in August. . .”

If approved, the deal would combine the nation’s largest television-station conglomerate with its fourth largest. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/proposed-nexstar-tegna-merger-blatant-violation-law-prohibiting-one-company-too-much-control

Eating All the Media?

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Article in Poynter by Al Tompkins, 11/18/25

Headline: “Scripps tells staff a Sinclair takeover isn’t a done deal, even after surprise stock purchase”

“Scripps Broadcasting president and CEO Adam Symson told employees Monday that a takeover by rival Sinclair Broadcasting is far from a done deal, even after Sinclair announced it had purchased more than 8% of Scripps stock and had been in merger talks for months. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/scripps-tells-staff-a-sinclair-takeover-is-unlikely-despite-surprise-stock-purchase/

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 11/18/25

Headline: “The War for Warners”

Subhead:  “Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix are preparing final bids for Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets, setting up a high-stakes showdown that will reorder the media landscape”

“. . . Variety had reported, and then largely walked back, that Paramount had ‘formed an investment consortium with the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi’ to pursue a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. . .”

“What is accurate is that Paramount is preparing its final bid for WBD, which Ellison still hopes to swallow whole despite David Zaslav’s best efforts to beat back the takeover. . .

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/warner-bros-discovery-bids-paramount-comcast-netflix

Billionaires Buy the Media

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Article in The Guardian by Robert Reich, 11/13/25

Headline:  “Ultra-rich media owners are tightening their grip on democracy. It’s time to wrest our power back”

“The richest man on Earth owns X.

“The family of the second-richest man owns Paramount, which owns CBS, and could soon own Warner Bros, which owns CNN.

“The third-richest man owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

“The fourth-richest man owns the Washington Post and Amazon MGM Studios.

“Another billionaire owns Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

“Why are the ultra-rich buying up so much of the media? Vanity may play a part, but there’s a more pragmatic – some might say sinister – reason. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/13/trump-media-ultra-rich-democracy

Media Natives Are Restless

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Article in The Washington Post by Laura Wagner and Scott Nover, 11/7/25

Headline: “Bari Weiss’s first month at CBS News unfolds in a newsroom culture clash”

Subhead:  “The opinion journalist took over as editor in chief in October, launching a new era for the network amid layoffs, confusion and shifting expectations.”

“. . .A shake-up might have been what Ellison had in mind by hiring Weiss, an opinion journalist with no experience running a large newsroom. For years, ‘CBS Evening News’ has run in third place behind the evening news programs from NBC and ABC, and some staffers welcomed new ideas.

“ ‘My guess is that what they’re trying to do is appeal to those who feel they are alienated from CBS because they think that it’s too left-leaning or too biased in one way or another,’ said Jacob Nelson, a communications professor at the University of Utah. The risk Weiss and Ellison take on, he added, ‘is that they are just going to alienate even the people that they already have.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/11/07/bari-weiss-cbs-news-remake/

Someone Wants to Control All Media

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Article in The Guardian by Owen Jones, 10/29/25

Headline:  “From CBS to TikTok, US media are falling to Trump’s allies. This is how democracy crumbles”

Subhead:  “We’re watching the Orbánisation of the US – and as in Hungary, control of the media is key to consolidating power”

“Democracy may be dying in the US. Whether the patient receives emergency treatment in time will determine whether the condition becomes terminal. Before Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, I warned of ‘Orbánisation’ – in reference to Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán. There, democracy was not extinguished by firing squads or the mass imprisonment of dissidents, but by slow attrition. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/29/cbs-tiktok-us-media-donald-trump-allies-democracy

 

Media History Disappearing?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Liam Scott, 10/28/25

Headline:  “Who’s Going to Save Local Newspaper Archives?”

Subhead:  “Archivists worry in particular about photographs that have never been digitized.”

“The Smokehouse Creek Fire burned through the Texas Panhandle in 2024. . .”

“As it consumed the rolling hills around Canadian [Texas], Brown, whose family has owned the paper since the 1940s, was overcome by a different fear: that the fire would destroy the [Canadian] Record’s archive. “I would have been devastated,” she said. “It’s not just the history of this community. It’s the history of my family. It’s who we are. It’s what we’ve done. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/digitize-save-local-news-archives-prevent-lost-history.php

News in the Eye of the Beholder

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Article in Status by Natalie Korach, 10.29.25

Headline: “Paramount’s Eye Strain”

Subhead:  “It was a ‘traumatic’ day at CBS News, as David Ellison’s Paramount unleashed a fresh wave of layoffs across the company, hitting the news division hard.”

“On Wednesday morning, shortly after Paramount staffers received a memo from David Ellison outlining a ‘tough day’ of layoffs ahead, CBS News staffers joined the regular 9 a.m. editorial call where newly minted editor in chief Bari Weiss and president Tom Cibrowski addressed them on the forthcoming cuts. “\’This is just an enormously difficult day for so many people that have given years of their lives to this company,’ Weiss said.

“Indeed, it was another rough day inside CBS News, which has experienced no shortage of them in recent months. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/cbs-news-layoffs-paramount

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 10/29/25

Headline:  “CBS News staffers lose jobs in ‘bloodbath’ as part of sweeping cuts from Paramount”

Subhead:  “Paramount laying off about 1,000 staffers, including some in news, on Wednesday amid longer-term cost-cutting plan”

“For months, CBS News staffers have been on edge waiting for a long-expected round of layoffs as part of the $2bn in cost-cutting that had been promised after parent company Paramount’s successful merger with Skydance Media.

“Those cuts began on Wednesday morning and are expected to affect fewer than 100 people. The company declined to provide a specific number. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/oct/29/cbs-news-layoffs-paramount

One Media, One Country!

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jem Bartholomew, 10/27/25

Headline:  “The CEOs of Everything”

Subhead:  “Larry and David Ellison are poised to become the Trump era’s reigning media moguls.”

“. . .Larry Ellison’s net worth is currently 342.5 billion dollars, according to Forbes. As a businessman, Ellison characterizes his approach by paraphrasing Genghis Khan: “It is not sufficient that I succeed. Everyone else must fail.’. . .”

“The Ellisons are not the only billionaires buying newspapers, seizing power over TV networks, and remaking social media platforms. But what makes their efforts more formidable is the vertical integration they would command: movie studios, news networks, part of a social media platform, and user data on millions of people, all in one package.. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/ceos-everything-david-larry-ellison-oracle-skydance-paramount-kimmel-carr.php

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Article in The New Republic by Alex Shephard, 10/27/25

Headline:  “Larry and David Ellison Are Building a Pro-Trump Media Behemoth”

Subhead:  “With the president’s blessing, the Ellisons’ Skydance merged with Paramount, gaining control of CBS News. Now the new giant might gobble up Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes CNN.”

“Donald Trump is about to give Larry Ellison and his son David another present. In July, the Trump administration gifted the mogul Paramount, whose properties include Paramount Studios and CBS, allowing it to merge with the Ellisons’ Skydance, despite antitrust concerns. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/202272/larry-david-ellison-paramount-warner-pro-trump-media-behemoth

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Article in The Daily Beast by Eboni Boykin-Patterson, 10/23/25

Headline:  “Jon Stewart Predicts ‘Bloodletting’ From His New Billionaire Boss”

Subhead:  “ ‘Just one guy controls all of the media—what could go wrong?’ Stewart said Thursday.”

“Jon Stewart joked that his new boss should “have it all,” as his network’s new overlord Skydance continues to gobble up the country’s biggest media companies.

“Skydance CEO David Ellison now has his sights set on acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery after its acquisition of Paramount, The Daily Show’s parent company.

“ ‘He should have it all,’ Stewart quipped on The Weekly Show Thursday. ‘My guy should have it all. He should be the leader of all… Why are there other media companies? Shouldn’t they all just be one?. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jon-stewart-sounds-off-on-his-new-billionaire-boss-david-ellison/