When Billionaires Buy the News (Again)
This week, Hollywood gave us a story that says a lot more about our politics than it does about movies or streaming shows.
Streaming giant Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery, (which owns massive film studios in addition to TV brands like HBO, CNN, etc) just announced a $72 billion merger, one of the biggest in media history. At the same time, Paramount (run by David Ellison, the son of Trump megadonor and Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison) is trying to blow it all up with a dramatic hostile takeover bid. Regardless of the outcome, more media consolidation at this level is bad for consumers, movie theaters, entertainment workers, and of course, the information ecosystem writ large.
What’s also really worrisome is how the competing parties in this deal are bending over backwards to get one man’s approval - Donald Trump - and the leverage it’s handing him over the corporate news and entertainment industry heading into 2026.
We found out this week that Paramount’s Ellison reportedly visited Washington to reassure Trump officials that if he won the bid, he’d make major changes to CNN, the network Trump has spent years vilifying and threatening. His father, Larry Ellison, even called Trump personally after Netflix’s deal was announced, arguing the merger would “hurt competition.”
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the President’s son-in-law and powerful friends in the Gulf are invested in Paramount’s bid.
That means a billionaire donor with business ties to the President’s family told the President that he should kill a rival’s business deal in favor of their offer - and if he did, they would leverage those acquisitions to provide more favors to the President. This is precisely the sequence of events we’re seeing play out at the very same billionaire’s last big media acquisition of CBS with the installation of Bari Weiss at the top of the news division. And Paramount may get what they want: walking into the Kennedy Center Honors last weekend, President Trump told the press that the Netflix deal “could be a problem.”
In any other year or administration, this would probably pass off as a business story about the streaming wars and shareholder value with a touch of anti-trust. But in the context of the Trump administration’s war on the media and corporate capitulation, it’s become about something far greater: the rapid consolidation of our nation’s information ecosystem by billionaires who are shamelessly leveraging those assets to curry favor with a pay-to-play President, with no regard for the collateral damage they are enacting on our democracy in the process. Media giants like Warner, CBS, and Fox used to only compete for viewers and advertisers – today, we’re all watching in horror as they compete for the approval of an authoritarian in the White House to keep themselves in his good graces for, you know, shareholder value.
A viral video this week posted by Dan Toomey from Morning Brew received over 80 million views across platforms by mocking the unprecedented media consolidation we’re seeing, proving that Americans are paying attention to these hostile takeovers:
This developing story provides yet another reminder of why billionaires, philanthropies, and altruistic investment funds (if those exist?) that believe fiercely in protecting freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and plain old democracy in America are so urgently needed right now to invest in a counter media ecosystem of independent news networks and brands that can keep the public informed, engaged, and motivated to fight back.
Every billionaire who buys a legacy network or newsroom to serve a corrupt political agenda makes it harder for ordinary Americans to trust what they read and watch, but the smartest people understand that offense is always the best defense. Right now, independent and left-leaning media outlets like COURIER are seeing big spikes in organic growth and engagement as more and more Americans become alarmed by the hostile takeover of our government and media, making us not only a smart investment, but one that our democracy frankly depends upon.
It is up to all of us to ensure that facts and stories that matter to real people don’t disappear behind billion-dollar mergers, elite paywalls, and capitulating corporate boardrooms. With your help, we’ll keep doing that work and growing into 2026 and beyond.
Have a restful weekend,
Tara
On the road in Utah
I spent the first part of the week delivering the keynote address at an annual convening of the Alliance for a Better Utah, a leading advocacy organization in the Beehive State.
With the youngest, and one of the fastest-growing populations in the country and a new congressional map that will add one additional Democrat-favoring district, Utah will be at the forefront of the national political conversation over the next decade. It was inspiring and energizing to meet so many advocates and partners on the ground working to drive real change in the state.
What I’m reading this week
U.S. Showing Signs of ‘Rapid Authoritarian Shift,’ Civic Freedoms Report Warns (TIME, 12/9)
“The U.S. is showing signs of undergoing a “rapid authoritarian shift” as civic freedoms in the country decline following President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, a group that tracks the status of such liberties and the threats they face around the world is warning. CIVICUS, an international network of civil society groups that advocates for stronger civil liberties, downgraded its assessment of U.S. civic freedoms from “narrowed” to “obstructed” in a new report on Tuesday, months after it added the country to a global human rights watchlist earlier this year.”
Greg Abbott vows to put Turning Point USA chapters in all Texas schools (COURIER Texas, 12/9)
“Texas has officially launched a partnership with Turning Point USA—an organization that advocates for far-right, conservative politics co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk—to create chapters on every high school and college campus in the state. Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, both Republicans, announced the initiative during a press conference at the Governor’s Mansion on Monday.”
US plans to start checking all tourists’ social media (Sky News, 12/10)
“The potential social media mandate being proposed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) would apply to anyone visiting, whether they require a visa or not.”
Is This Former Bravo Star Democrats’ Toughest Critic? (NYT, 12/7)
“The reality TV celebrity turned left-wing podcaster Jennifer Welch is fed up with President Trump. She also expects better from the Democrats.”