Big Media

WTF? Trump’s FCC Expected to OK Paramount’s Takeover of CNN with BILLIONS of Middle East Dollars

Posted by on April 28, 2026 at 1:55 pm. 2 Comments :

The state of the media business has declined precipitously during the second occupation of the White House by Donald Trump. Either they have capitulated to his threats, lied to “sanewash” his incoherent babbling, soft-pedaled his autocratic policies, or just failed to demonstrate the courage that is expected from practitioners of a free press.

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General Donald Trump on CNN

In short, the performance of much of the media amounts to simply cowardice. While there are some notable exceptions, the craven spinelessness, greed, and biases of most of the biggest media conglomerates is more than a little disturbing. And their sheepish surrender to Trump’s crybaby bullying encourages his worst totalitarian tendencies. Such as…

SEE THIS: Trump at the ‘Justice’ Department: CNN, MSNBC, and Other Media are Illegal and ‘It Has to Stop’

Trump has been carefully studying the anti-democratic tactics of his tyrannical idols Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Viktor Orbán. And the results are evident in recent interactions between the government agencies he presides over and his MAGA media pals.

For instance, Larry and David Ellison, the Trump-fluffing moguls who own Paramount Skydance, are now seeking to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. They have already gotten some preliminary approvals from Trump, his Justice Department, and his Federal Trade Commission. And now they are seeking to get a green light from the Federal Communications Commission. As reported by the Hollywood Reporter…

“Paramount has asked the Federal Communications Commission to sign off on its equity investment from three prominent Middle East sovereign wealth funds that are backing the company’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.”

Paramount is making a direct appeal to Trump flunky Brendan Carr, his FCC chair, to approve the deal for the merger, including $24 billion from “Saudi Arabia’s PIF (public investment fund), L’Imad, an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, and a Qatar Investment Authority fund.” And while they say that “the sovereign funds are only acquiring non-voting equity shares,” it would still be an unprecedented arrangement wherein these foreign investors would own 49.5% of the company.

Paramount says that “the Ellison family and RedBird will…be the sole owners of Class A Common Stock, representing 100% of the voting shares.” And they think that makes things better? It actually means that these politically biased billionaire pals of Trump will be the overlords of two prominent news networks, CBS and CNN, along with all of the other assets of the combined media empire.

There are legal obstacles to foreign individuals, businesses, or governments owning U.S. media companies. The law cites national security, propaganda or political influence, and media concentration, as issues impacting approval. Under normal circumstances it would be particularly concerning for Middle Eastern entities to own such large percentages of American media.

The potential for exploiting the platforms (both news and entertainment) is obvious and worrisome. Even limited to non-voting shares, they would have significant leverage by simply threatening to sell shares, maneuvering their own competing platforms, or bailing out entirely.

Anyone who thinks that investors who own nearly half of the company wouldn’t be able to influence the company’s decisions is terminally naïve. And if those investors also happen to be tight with the U.S. administration, it just makes the potential for risk even greater.

There is literally no limit to the nefarious financial and national security mischief that they could engage in. And Trump’s Justice Department and other oversight agencies would be useless. Trump has already cleansed them of any ethical operatives. His administration, and Trump himself, would be no deterrent at all. In fact, the record shows that he would be an accomplice.

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Trump-Fluffing Media Mogul is Hosting a ‘Tribute’ Dinner for Anti-Media, Wannabe Dictator Trump

Posted by on April 23, 2026 at 1:01 pm. 0 Comments :

The seething animosity that Donald Trump fosters for the free press has been a defining characteristic of his warped, anti-democratic persona for as long as he has been in public life. He even published an anti-media page on the White House website. Ironically, he has also had an enduring dependency on the very same press for the constant attention he craves and that fuels his massive yet fragile ego.

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Donald Trump

In a shameless attempt to kiss the…let’s say ring…of Herr Trump, billionaire media mogul and CEO of the Paramount Skydance conglomerate (which owns CBS), David Ellison, will be hosting a dinner Friday night to pay tribute to Trump for rolling over so compliantly and approving Ellison’s bid to takeover Warner Bros. Discovery (which owns CNN). Ellison has previously “paid” tribute to Trump in the form of millions of dollars in bribes to grease the wheels of his merger bid.

SEE THIS: Paramount Caves to Trump’s Extortion, Disgraces CBS, Pays a $16M Bribe to Settle a Bogus Lawsuit

Now, on the eve of the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual gala, Ellison is fluffing Trump and his ego once again. As reported by Variety…

“David Ellison, whose Paramount Skydance is awaiting closure of its massive deal to swallow up Warner Bros. Discovery, will host an invitation-only dinner next week ‘honoring’ President Donald Trump and CBS News’ White House correspondents, Variety has confirmed.

The event will take place in Washington, D.C., on April 23, two days before the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, April 25. The Ellison-hosted function will be held at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, which the State Department in December 2025 announced was being renamed ‘The Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.'”

The optics of this tribute dinner couldn’t be more disturbing. Ellison is brazenly exhibiting his bias for Trump and his MAGA cult movement. That bias has already been evident in the reporting by CBS, where its 60 Minutes program interfered with segments that were critical of Trump. What’s more, CBS has invited Trump’s Secretary of War Crimes, Pete Hegseth, and Senior Neo-Fascist, Stephen Miller, to be their guests at the WHCA’s dinner on Saturday.

How can anyone take seriously any dedication to honest, unbiased reporting by an organization displaying this much blatant political favoritism? It is also notable that while Ellison has plenty of time to suck up to Trump with patronizing dinners, he was unable to make time to appear before a congressional hearing probing Paramount’s efforts to acquire Warner Bros Discovery, that has numerous potential anti-trust violations.

Meanwhile, Ellison’s aspirations for autocratic media dominance are not a done deal. California Attorney General Rob Bonta will be conducting a “vigorous” review of Paramount’s pending acquisition. There will be similar reviews by legal authorities in other states, as well as internationally.

So the Trump regime’s takeover of the free press will be facing significant obstacles. And in the end they will have succeeded only in severely degrading the public’s trust in the institutions that align with Trump.

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Trump-Backed Media Merger Blocked By Federal Court, Ruling that it Would Violate Antitrust Laws

Posted by on April 18, 2026 at 2:11 pm. 1 Comments :

The consolidation of giant media conglomerates has produced a handful of monopolistic corporations that are mostly run by right-wing billionaires. Oligarchs like Rupert Murdoch and David Ellison wield enormous influence while sucking up to their White House benefactor, Donald Trump, for regulatory favors.

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Donald Trump

Among the recent mergers on the media’s calendar is one between two television station groups that each own dozens of stations nationwide. Nexstar and Tegna agreed to merge earlier this year after getting a rubber stamp approval by the Trump administration, with Trump’s personal assistance. It’s the sort of totalitarian domination that dictators like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un enjoy, and that Trump envies and seeks to emulate.

SEE THIS: Trump Brags About Getting Fascist Control of the Media in Bonkers Truth Social Post

However, the Nexstar-Tegna merger that Trump sought to steamroll into place has run into some turbulence. A group of state Attorneys General filed a lawsuit to quash the merger, and they have just received a favorable court ruling that stops it in its tracks. As reported by NPR…

“A federal judge has blocked local TV giant Nexstar’s takeover of a leading rival, Tegna, until an antitrust trial plays out. If Nexstar loses, it could be compelled to unwind the $6.2 billion deal, in which it absorbed 65 additional stations.”

NPR elaborated saying that if the merger were to go through, Nexstar would wind up owning…

“…265 local stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, reaching 80% of the nation’s households. Those are all unprecedented figures. Federal competition law limits companies to less than half that level [39%].”

The prospect of yet another massive megalith controlling that much of the mediasphere is more than a little troubling to anyone who cherishes the free press. Particularly if the merger is in violation of the law. And there is no mistaking Nexstar’s political leanings. They were the first station group to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air after he made a couple of harmless jokes about news coverage of Charlie Kirk.

For his part, Trump weighed in on both sides of the merger debate. On November 23, 2025, he posted a comment expressing his opposition to the merger on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, saying “If this would also allow the Radical Left Networks to “enlarge,” I would not be happy…If anything, make them SMALLER!” But more recently, on February 7, 2026, he posted a supportive comment saying “We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks.”

Trump’s waffling on the merger is typical of his inability to form a coherent position on anything. He often just rides with whatever he was told last by one of his flunkies. In this case he also chose to fulfill the wishes of arch-conservative moguls who have funneled funds into his various scams.

Meanwhile, state AGs are also closely examining Paramount’s pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes CNN. Hopefully that will be the next monopolistic mega-merger to collapse.

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MEDIA MATTERS: There’s No Ratings Bump for MAGA Media Capitulation

Posted by on March 26, 2026 at 3:21 pm. 1 Comments :

From the outset of the reoccupation of the White House by Donald Trump, much of the mainstream media seemed to have concluded that it would be in their best interest to shamelessly kiss his…let’s say ring, in order to be rewarded with some sort of presidential gratuity. It turns out that that wasn’t a particularly smart move.

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Donald Trump on CBS News (See BS)

Trump’s diseased personality has long been observed to combine the worst aspects of cowardice and bullyism. He exhibits the classic behavior of a malignant narcissist. Thus, he is known to rely on pitiful whining and rhetorical intimidation to get what he wants. Unfortunately, there are too many weaklings in the media business who will succumb to that sort of coercive abuse. And one of those media companies is the Paramount conglomerate that owns CBS News.

SEE THIS: Paramount Caves to Trump’s Extortion, Disgraces CBS, Pays a $16M Bribe to Settle a Bogus Lawsuit

Paramount is not alone in paying off Trump’s extortion. ABC News did the same thing. As have others in academia and law firms. They were all seeking to gain some sort of business or regulatory benefit for their ransom. However, Media Matters has noticed that a different anticipated benefit that CBS might have expected never actually materialized.

The article was headlined “Legacy outlets that bent the knee to Trump haven’t just lost credibility — they’re bleeding readers and viewers.” And in the article they wrote of the “cheers from Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for making the network more palatable to their aims.” The article elaborated that Trump’s billionaire buddies who own Paramount, David and Larry Ellison…

“…installed conservative journalist Bari Weiss at the helm, promising that her ‘entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision’ would ‘invigorate’ the network. But six months into Weiss’ rightward makeover of CBS, the fruits of her labors include…complaints from the CBS newsroom that she is dismantling its independence — and, it now appears, a viewer exodus.

“Status’ Oliver Darcy got ahold of some CBS News ratings data from the first quarter of 2026, and it is brutal. CBS Evening News has lost 7% of viewers year-over-year, placing it ‘on track for its lowest-rated first quarter of the 21st century in both total viewers and the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic,’ while CBS Mornings plummeted 13% and ‘is pacing toward its lowest-rated quarter on record in both total audience and the key demo.’ Meanwhile, the audiences of competitor shows at ABC News and NBC News grew over the same period.”

Those efforts to transform CBS News into Fox News Lite are not only failing, they were doomed to failure from the start. Why would any Trump-loving Fox News viewer ditch the network that has so thoroughly brainwashed them, for one that they have been conditioned for years to despise and distrust as “fake” news? American television audiences aren’t looking for more sycophantic, right-wing, stenography that sucks up to Trump and his White House regime. They get more than enough of that from Fox News, Newsmax, and dozens of MAGA-tist social media “influencers” who have repopulated the White House press briefing room.

MORE HERE: Trump Declares Himself King of the White House Press Corps, Will Now Decide Who Can Question Him

What’s more, the timing of CBS couldn’t be worse. Trump has been descending to historic new lows in job approval. And even his most faithful MAGA minions – both media mouthpieces and audience – have been deserting him because of his betrayal on their core issues of releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, and avoiding more unnecessary wars. Not to mention their being burdened by higher costs for everything from groceries, to gasoline, to housing, to healthcare, and more.

So just as Trump is becoming a political dead weight, CBS is chaining itself to that anchor as it sinks rapidly to the ocean floor. Any media, legal, and academic enterprises that follow suit will suffer similar hardships. And they will deserve it. It’s just too bad that the rest of us will also suffer the loss of honest, independent services that were available before the Trump poisoning of American culture.

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Herr Trump Is Trying to Quash the Netflix Deal to Buy Warner Bros as a Favor to His Oligarch Pals

Posted by on January 11, 2026 at 3:34 pm. 0 Comments :

The boots of Donald Trump – swollen cankles, bone spurred feet and all – are once again stomping down on matters where they don’t belong. They have already trampled on everything from the Kennedy Center, to the Caribbean shores of Venezuela, to American cities with Democratic leaders that he regards as “the enemy within.”

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Donald Trump and Media - ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, FOX

The latest victim of Trump’s tromping is the pending merger of media giants Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) and Netflix. The WBD board has already accepted the bid from Netflix that it deemed superior to the one by the Paramount-Skydance conglomerate. But unsatisfied with not having having his tiny thumb pressed firmly into the pie, Trump is openly lobbying against Netflix. That wouldn’t be because his friends David and Larry Ellison are the owners of Paramount and have promised to make make changes that Trump wants, would it?

SEE THIS: Paramount Caves to Trump’s Extortion, Disgraces CBS, Pays a $16M Bribe to Settle a Bogus Lawsuit

Setting aside the fact that it is both legally and ethically improper for Trump to interfere with the business affairs of these companies in a free market economy, Trump’s favoritism is transparently biased and aimed at benefitting himself and his wealthy comrades. On Sunday he posted a comment on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, that said simply “Stop the Netflix Cultural Takeover.” The post linked to an article disparaging the pending merger on the ultra right-wing website, One America News Network (OAN), by disgraced attorney John M. Pierce. The article said that…

“Netflix’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is not simply another Hollywood deal. It is an attempt to consolidate unprecedented cultural power inside one of America’s most ideologically aggressive corporations — a company that has repeatedly used its global platform to elevate progressive narratives while suppressing dissenting viewpoints.”

That is, to use a technical term, bullshit! There is no evidence that Netflix has any political ideology, much less one that is “aggressive” and is “suppressing dissenting viewpoints.” That’s an opinion that even Trump disagrees with. Trump recently met with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos in the Oval Office and came away saying that Sarandos is “fantastic” and that “I have a lot of respect for him. He is a great person.”

The article’s main argument against the Netflix/WBD merger is that it would would weaken competition. That’s true, But it’s just as true – if not worse – if WBD were to merge with Paramount. The article’s position that WBD accepted the Netflix bid due to some ideological bias is ridiculous. First of all because the Netflix bid is markedly better. Secondly because the real bias would be if the Trump regime forced Netflix to accept the bid from Paramount, whose owners are devoted Trump fluffers. Then the article claimed that…

“Handing this machine control over Warner’s franchises and future output would allow one company to rewrite characters, retell history, redefine social norms, and control which ideas reach audiences. […] It is time to say no to a woke media monopoly before the damage becomes impossible to reverse.”

For the record, Paramount would be the “machine” that could “control which ideas reach audiences.” It already owns Paramount Pictures, Paramount Television, CBS Entertainment, CBS News, Showtime, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, TV Land, BET, Country Music Television, and 46 owned-and-operated TV stations across the country. Netflix is primarily a program producer and distributor. It doesn’t own any TV stations or, more importantly and unlike Paramount, any news networks.

Paramount has already demonstrated that it will bend the knee to Trump in its CBS News reporting. They recently censored CBS’ 60 Minutes, nixing a segment on the El Salvador gulag that Trump has been sending migrants to. They hired a right-wing blogger, Bari Weiss, to run their nightly news program with a decidedly more conservative bent. And they also canceled Stephen Colbert’s top rated late night comedy program. Just think what they would do if they acquired CNN, which is currently owned by Warner Bros and would be part of the merger with Paramount, but not with Netflix.

This would be a good time to examine the character of the OAN article’s author, John M. Pierce. He is an disreputable attorney with a long history of supporting Trump. He has been accused of making “threats against Department of Justice personnel.” And in September of 2021 NPR reported that…

“Pierce, a controversial lawyer with pro-Trump politics, has taken on more defendants related to the [January 6th] Capitol breach than any other attorney.”

[And that] “Court records from his divorce show that he has dealt with substance abuse and mental health problems for several years. His ex-wife has previously obtained two domestic violence restraining orders against him.”

That’s the caliber of author recruited by OAN to write this article attacking Netflix. And it’s why the article is so blatantly biased and counterfactual. There are some good reasons to oppose a WBD merger with either Netflix or Paramount. Corporate consolidation often harms both consumers and employees. But in this case the author leans heavily to one side, which invalidates his arguments entirely.

In the final analysis, Paramount would be far worse than Netflix as a partner for Warner Bros. It would cater to the whims of Trump, and deliver more conservative programming in both the entertainment and news divisions. And Trump’s cheerleading for Paramount is further proof of his bias and ignorance of proper conduct as president.

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Paramount Caves to Trump’s Extortion, Disgraces CBS, Pays a $16M Bribe to Settle a Bogus Lawsuit

Posted by on July 2, 2025 at 1:41 pm. 3 Comments :

In yet another capitulation by Big Media to the ravenous whims of aspiring authoritarian Donald Trump, Paramount Global has succumbed to the insidious intimidation of a tyrannical threat intended to quash the freedom of the press guaranteed by the Constitution’s First Amendment. It’s just the latest assault on the media that Trump frequently refers to in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.”

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Donald Trump and Media - ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, FOX

On Wednesday morning it was announced that Paramount had agreed to a settlement of the lawsuit that Trump had brought against CBS News, alleging that the network had defamed him by editing part of an interview with Kamala Harris. Never mind that the editing (which was nominated for an Emmy) was proper and routine and done only for time and clarity. To Trump it warranted taking CBS off the air because it offended his tender sensitivities…

SEE THIS: Snowflake Trump Whines He Suffered ‘Mental Anguish’ From the 60 Minutes Interview of Kamala Harris

The settlement was nothing more than Paramount bowing to the extortion of a mob boss president who was only interested in exacting revenge on a news organization that had the audacity to present a fair and balanced interview of a political opponent and to report the truth about him. As reported by CNN…

“CBS News parent Paramount Global has agreed to pay $16 million to resolve a legally dubious lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump over a ’60 Minutes’ news report last fall.” […]

“Legal experts maintained that Trump’s suit was frivolous and that CBS was on solid ground to fight and win the case in court. But corporate priorities trumped journalistic principles. Paramount has been trying for months to complete a lucrative merger with Skydance Media, and the deal requires approval from the Trump administration, in part because CBS owns local stations that are licensed by the government. This gave Trump a form of leverage over Paramount.” […]

In short, Paramount paid a bribe to Trump in order to get him to allow their multibillion merger with Skydance Media (owned by Trump associates Larry and David Ellison) to proceed with approval from Trump’s FCC. The fate of the merger was of – shall we say paramount – concern to the chairwoman of the corporation, Shari Redstone, who stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars when the merger is completed.

The settlement that Paramount agreed to was for $16 million that would cover Trump’s legal expenses, with the remainder going to his eventual presidential library. But far worse than that, it establishes a precedent for bullying news enterprises in order to shape their reporting or to make them pay for being honest and independent. And despite the fact that there was no apology or other statement of wrongdoing or regret, Trump still claimed that he scored a total victory. His legal team said that…

“[The settlement] holds the Fake News media accountable for their wrongdoing and deceit. CBS and Paramount Global realized the strength of this historic case and had no choice but to settle.”

None of that statement is remotely related to reality. It’s hard to sue for $20 billion in damages – which was the original amount sought by Trump – and settle for 0.08% of that, and spin it as a strong case that Paramount “had no choice but to settle.” Particularly when Trump couldn’t even get any kind of an apology, and the funds would not be going directly to him, but to his library, if there ever is one.

Nevertheless, the damage done to the reputation of CBS News is significant and enduring. It was a decision by their corporate parent to sacrifice the network’s credibility in order to enrich their owners. And their weakness makes it harder for other news organizations to stand up to the kind of criminal protection racket tactics that Trump is so notorious for engaging in. Hopefully any other media outfit facing this in the future will have more courage than the cowards at Paramount.

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CNN Moves Don Lemon and Others to New Morning Show in Major Network Shake Up

Posted by on September 15, 2022 at 11:09 am. 1 Comments :

On Thursday morning CNN announced that it is moving primetime anchor, Don Lemon, to a new morning show, that he will co-anchor along with Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins. It’s the latest in a series of programming changes by the network’s new CEO, Chris Licht.

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Donald Trump, CNN

The move out of primetime for Lemon may look on the surface like a demotion. However, mornings are one the biggest revenue generating time periods in television news and it gives Lemon three hours daily instead of two. So it’s hard to assess whether there was any intention on the part of Licht to suppress Lemon’s generally liberal-leaning views. The test will come when we see his presentations in the new morning lineup, and when Licht announces who gets the now vacant primetime slot. Licht also still has an open slot where Chris Cuomo used to air.

RELATED: CNN Cancels ‘Reliable Sources’ – Brian Stelter Walks – As Network Leans to the Right

For his part, Lemon celebrated the change saying that it was “time to shake things up,” and that he was “honored by [Licht’s] belief in me.” CNN’s announcement stated that…

“The network on Thursday unveiled a new marquee morning program that will debut later this year, anchored by stars Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, and Kaitlan Collins. […] In recent weeks, Licht has started to put his stamp on the network’s programming, with the announcement of the new morning show his most significant move to date.”

Nevertheless, partisans on both sides are staking out positions on the move. Keith Olbermann addressed it with the benefit of his personal past experience at MSNBC with Licht…

“Chris Licht (who, when we worked together at msnbc, I believed used to eat paste) has now surrounded Don Lemon with an ex-Daily Caller “journalist” and somebody who last month demanded an apology from Biden to Republicans.”

On the other side, Sean Hannity of Fox News weighed in with his customary lack of any beneficial experience (also misspelling the name of “Christ” Licht}, saying that…

“LEMON LOSES PRIMETIME: Don Downgraded to Morning Show Slot”

CNN recently merged with Discovery Networks, which has a notably conservative executive team and board of directors. When Licht was hired to run the network it seemed like a positive choice considering that he was previously the producer of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” But that may have been a premature assessment.

Licht almost immediately began making statements about how he is more interested in cutting back on news analysis in favor of just presenting a dryer, context-free brand of straight news. And his first programming decision was to cancel Brian Stelter’s “Reliable Sources.”

If CNN’s new management thinks that striving for some form of artificial neutrality is going to garner them more ratings or respect, they will be sadly mistaken. The right is going to demonize them no matter what they say. They have the “CNN = Communist News Network” baked in. And Donald Trump has already started lying about what’s going on at the network:

RELATED: Big Liar Donald Trump Lies Bigly that CNN Has Prohibited Saying the Phrase ‘The Big Lie’

There could be pluses and minuses about this program change. Lemon has a strong following and could provide some serious competition for Fox and Friends and Morning Joe on MSNBC. But how the primetime hours will be filled is going to tell us more about the direction CNN is headed. If Jim Acosta moves into the timeslot, there may yet still be hope. If it’s Chris Wallace, not so much.

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Trump’s Attack on the Free Press Escalates with Help from His Shadow Cabinet: Fox News

Posted by on November 12, 2018 at 3:27 pm. 1 Comments :

Having just returned from embarrassing America overseas, Donald Trump is resuming his obsessive campaign against the free press and the Constitution. This preoccupation with what he calls “the enemy of the people” is being pursued in lieu of honoring fallen troops on this Veterans Day, directing aid to the victims of the California fires, or performing any other routine presidential duties.

Donald Trump, Censorship

One thing that Trump can be expected to never neglect is his “Executive Time,” otherwise known as tweeting and watching Fox News. And on Monday that’s precisely what has been occupying his short attention span. In particular was a tweet wherein Trump complained about the alleged antitrust violations of the media megalith Comcast/NBCU:

Note that Trump is quoting from a comment by Fox Business contributor Charlie Gasparino, because Trump is incapable of having an original thought. Trump (via Gasparino) is terribly concerned about a report that the “American Cable Association has big problems with Comcast.” For those unfamiliar with the television video distribution market, the ACA is a lobbying group that represents small cable and broadband providers. It isn’t especially surprising that they are troubled by the business practices of a giant competitor.

To be clear, there are legitimate reasons to oppose Big Media enterprises like Comcast or AT&T/Time Warner or Verizon. But rest assured that Trump has no idea what those reasons are. He is narrowly focused on only what affects him personally. That’s why he opposes the AT&T/Time Warner merger (TW owns CNN). And it’s why he’s whining about Comcast/NBCU today (they own NBC/MSNBC). The fact that such mergers wind up giving consumers fewer choices and that cost more money never enters Trump’s ego-driven, cartoon brain.

Fortunately, the incoming chair of the House Intelligence Committee is planning to hold hearings on Trump’s flagrantly self-serving assaults on the media. Among other things, they should prove that Trump couldn’t care less about antitrust laws. You’ll notice that he never complains about Disney, which owns ABC and just bought most of the assets of the parent corporation of Fox News (but not including Fox News). And he strongly supported the planned Sinclair/Tribune merger, which was blocked by his own Justice Department. Those are both rabidly right-wing media firms that shill for Trump on a 24/7 basis. Never mind that the merger would have resulted in a conglomerate that owned more local television stations than any other in America.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

So while fires rage in California, our foreign allies are laughing at us, our veterans are neglected, our cities are tormented by mass shootings, our economy is declining, and democracy is being subverted by Republican Nationalist Party efforts to suppress voting in Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and elsewhere, Trump is keeping his powder (and his orange bird’s nest of a wig) dry by staying indoors and live-tweeting Fox News. And the rancid smell of his panic is only going to become more pungent as the January inauguration of the new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives gets closer.

Check Yourselves: Fox News Complains that MSNBC Stars Are ‘Cashing In’ on Trump’s Tax Scam

Posted by on December 22, 2017 at 4:57 pm. NO Comments :

Shortly after Donald Trump and his Republican cronies passed a tax reform bill that gives away millions to to the rich, a few greedy corporations jumped into the media circus to lavish praise on the president who just made them all much richer. AT&T, Boeing, and Wells Fargo were among the companies licking at Trump’s boots by pretending that they were passing on savings to their employees because of the tax reforms. Never mind that some of them had planned to give bonuses long before this bill was passed, just as they do almost every year. Most of the companies have ulterior motives for exalting Trump. Particularly AT&T who is currently battling the administration in its efforts to acquire TimeWarner.

Fox News Lies

Also on this list of sycophants is Comcast, the parent company of NBC. And that connection was all that Fox News needed to invent a story about MSNBC personalities “cashing in” in on the legislation. Fox’s media correspondent, Brian Flood, published a story on the Fox News website with the absurd headline, “NBC star journalists already cashing in on the tax plan they hate.” The article accuses Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, and others of selfishly taking advantage of a tax bill that they opposed. The article stated that:

The highly paid journalists at NBC and MSNBC who keep blasting President Trump’s tax reforms won’t have to wait for their rates to go down to benefit, since parent company Comcast likes the plan so much it is sending out $1,000 checks to employees.

Comcast announced on Thursday that it would award special $1,000 bonuses to over one hundred thousand employees because of the passage of tax reform and the FCC’s action on broadband.

The cable company’s generosity presumably extends to seven- and eight-figure stars, who have been railing nonstop against the landmark GOP reform as benefiting the rich at the expense of the poor.

The first thing that’s wrong with the headline is that Fox has no evidence that any executives or on-air talent are going to receive a cash bonus. So the whole story is based on an invented premise. Flood says that “the cable company’s generosity presumably extends to seven- and eight-figure stars.” Presumably? Apparently that’s enough to be the foundation of a critical article by the standards of Fox News. However, these sort of bonuses are almost never extended to executive personnel who have a different scale of compensation benefits. What’s more, the average amount of company bonuses (about 1,800.00) is much greater than the one these companies are now touting.

Additionally, the article notes that Comcast’s incentive to provide these bonuses was only partly due to Trump’s corporate tax cuts. It explicitly cites “the FCC’s action on broadband.” Otherwise known as the killing of Net Neutrality. Comcast was likely thanking Trump for eliminating a regulation that will net them billions in profits at the expense of a free and open Internet.

But the most startling logical lapse by Flood was his complaint that it would somehow be improper for MSNBC’s stars to take the money since they have been hammering Trump’s tax scam for weeks. WTF is he talking about. The fact that these hosts would criticize a bill that promised them a significant windfall is proof that they are motivated by principle, not greed. They opposed a bill that would put more money in their own pockets because they knew that millions of other Americas would suffer. Most people would regard that as admirable.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

For Fox News to imply that there would be something untoward about them getting a bonus that they campaigned against is stretching the boundaries of reason beyond recognition. They didn’t want it, they didn’t ask for it, and they aren’t even known to be getting it. But Fox is determined to create scandals where none exist because they haven’t got anything truthful or honest to report. And yet, this is remarkably sloppy, even for Fox News.

John Oliver’s Hilarious and Frightening Warning About the Next (and Worse) Fox News

Posted by on July 3, 2017 at 2:30 pm. 1 Comments :

On Sunday night John Oliver wrapped up his season with another of his brilliant TV essays. The subject of this one addressed a topic that is currently swirling around the news cycle. Donald Trump’s furious hatred of the media and the free press spiked to new heights this weekend. His repulsive WWE themed tweet is a thinly disguised incitement to violence against journalists. And he is continuing his attacks on what he calls “fake news,” but is really just any news that doesn’t worship him sufficiently.

John Oliver

Trump’s anti-media crusade has been laser-focused on CNN lately. But his broader targets include MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and virtually everything other than Fox News. However, John Oliver’s show did some deep digging (video below) on an under-the-radar media company that may be even more of a threat to ethical journalism than Fox News.

Oliver’s research found that the Sinclair Broadcast Group produces flagrantly conservative opinion segments for their affiliate stations. No other station group does this. They include commentaries by their chief political analyst, Boris Epshteyn. After advising Donald Trump’s campaign, Epshteyn served as the White House assistant communications director for surrogate operations. He resigned after repeated complaints about his “terrorizing” his media hosts and colleagues. So Sinclair snapped him up.

Oliver tagged the growing Sinclair empire as “The most influential media company you’ve never heard of.” And with its recent $4 billion bid to acquire the Tribune Company’s stations, it will become even more influential. And that’s a big problem. Because, while Fox News is known to be a purveyor of rabidly right-wing bullpucky, viewers are not as well informed about Sinclair’s biases. But Sinclair’s relative anonymity doesn’t make it less dangerous. As Oliver observed:

“We did some math and we found out that when you combine the most watched nightly newscasts on Sinclair and Tribune stations in some of their largest markets, you get an average total viewership of 2.2 million households. And that is a lot. It’s more than any current primetime show on Fox News. Including ‘Five Idiots Have the Most Intolerable Dinner Party Ever,’ and ‘That Guy From College Everyone Hated Has a Talk Show Now, with Tucker Carlson.'” […]

“If the opinions were confined just to the commentary or to the ad breaks that would be one thing. But Sinclair can sometimes dictate the content of your local newscast as well. And in contrast to Fox News – a clearly conservative outlet where you basically know what you’re getting – with Sinclair they’re injecting Fox-worthy content into the mouths of your local news anchors.”

The most disturbing part of this is that, as Oliver notes, “You might not even know this is happening.” That’s because the local anchors are required to read introductions to these segments written by the propagandists at Sinclair headquarters. They are distributed to the stations as “must runs,” so your local news editors have no editorial control. Consequently, your friendly neighborhood TV anchor is feeding you pre-chewed conservative BS without disclosing it.

At the end of Oliver’s program he introduced a sort of public service video. He suggested that it be used by Tribune stations to alert their viewers of the changes to expect after the pending acquisition by Sinclair. It features Steve Schirripa of the Sopranos. He delivers a hysterical, obscenity-laced disclosure that Sinclair’s ultra-biased clips were not not produced by the local station. “Because the people at this station know,” Schirripa says, “that local news should never be about cheap scaremongering or advancing a political agenda.” He closes saying that “If this becomes a Sinclair station, good luck with that shit.”

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Watch John Oliver’s program here: