<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/29/cbs-tiktok-us-media-donald-trump-allies-democracy>
"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. The electoral system was warped, civil society was targeted
and pro-Orbán moguls quietly absorbed the media.
Nine months on, and Orbánisation is in full bloom across the Atlantic.
Billionaire Larry Ellison, the Oracle co-founder, and his filmmaker son, David,
have become blunt instruments in this process. Trump boasts they are “friends
of mine – they’re big supporters of mine”. Larry Ellison, second only to Elon
Musk as the world’s richest man, has poured tens of millions into Republican
coffers. Shortly after the 2020 election, he joined a call that discussed
challenging the legitimacy of the vote. His son, David, has a history of
backing Democrats – but at one time, so did Trump, his daughter Ivanka and his
son-in-law Jared Kushner.
In August, David Ellison’s Skydance Media acquired Paramount Global with
financial support from his father, leaving him as chair and CEO of the new
entity. Beyond a vast slice of Hollywood, this acquisition brought control of
CBS News – one of the US’s “big three” networks. During the last election,
Trump demanded
CBS lose its broadcasting licence over alleged political bias
and even sued the network over what he called a flattering edit of Kamala
Harris’s
60 Minutes interview. His mood has since improved. Ellison is “going
to do the right thing” with the network, Trump crowed when its ownership
shifted. His optimism was swiftly vindicated: a Trump appointee was installed
as
CBS’s ombudsman to monitor “bias”, and Bari Weiss – a former Democrat
turned anti-woke crusader – was made editor-in-chief.
Now, Trump officials are briefing that they are also in favour of Paramount
Skydance buying Warner Bros Discovery, the parent company of
HBO and
CNN.
“Who owns Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is very important to the administration,”
a senior Trump official told the conservative New York Post. The pro-Trump
newspaper states that rival bidders will face “regulatory hurdles”, with WBD’s
CEO forced to consider the Trump administration’s willingness to crack down on
what it sees as rampant leftwing bias across the mainstream media."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
