the sixth-richest man on Earth and the fate of another major news network

[Public Citizen]

Here we go again.

At some point, Donald Trump heard the phrase “saying the quiet part out loud” and apparently took it as advice about what to do rather than what *not* to do.

On Friday — following the example Trump has set throughout his bumbling yet nonetheless calamitous regime — “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth said the quiet part out loud when he openly called for a MAGA billionaire to take over a major media company.

Hegseth was whining about accurate reporting on the news network CNN regarding the regime’s illegal war against Iran. On live television, Hegseth said, “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”

Some background info:

• David Ellison is the CEO of another major media company, Paramount Skydance.

• It was just Paramount until the Trump administration approved its merger with Skydance last year after the former paid $16 million to settle what was widely regarded as a baseless lawsuit by Trump against CBS News, which was part of Paramount.

• Late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert called his network’s settlement of Trump’s baseless lawsuit a “big fat bribe.” CBS then chose not to renew Colbert’s show, and has since put a conservative in charge of its entire news operation.

• David Ellison’s father is Larry Ellison, who is currently the sixth-richest person in the world, with a net worth estimated at over $198 billion.*

• Larry Ellison is a major supporter of Donald Trump. So much so that he even participated in a call shortly after the 2020 presidential election that focussed on overturning the results of that election.

• Paramount Skydance is now maneuvering to acquire the storied media company Warner Bros. Discovery (a.k.a. Warner Brothers), which owns CNN.

• That merger would need to be approved by the Trump administration.

To recap, David and Larry Ellison (the sixth-richest person on Earth) are already trying to take over the company that owns CNN. They need approval from the Trump administration to do so. One of the regime’s most powerful officials just endorsed that takeover.

The Trump regime openly espousing the takeover of independent media by reactionary billionaires so as to control thought in our democracy is yet another alarming step towards morphing America into an Orwellian society.

But it’s also a helpful tell. Pete Hegseth has made the definitive case for blocking Paramount’s bid to take over Warner Brothers, one of the key intentions of which is to snuff out views critical of the Trump regime.

We obviously can’t trust the Trump administration to undertake a fair consideration of this proposed merger, so it is imperative that state authorities act to block it.

Join Public Citizen in a message to the attorney general — the top law enforcement official — for each of the 50 states in America:

Media consolidation has long been a serious concern for our democracy. Letting reactionary billionaires — who have made their intentions to silence criticism of the Trump regime clear — take over legacy news outlets would be pouring gasoline on a raging fire. Since the Trump administration obviously can’t be trusted to neutrally evaluate Paramount Skydance’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, the American people are counting on you to do everything in your power to block this patently unjustifiable merger.

Click to add your name now.

Thanks for taking action.

For progress,

- Robert Weissman & Lisa Gilbert, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen

*That’s according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires list. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: If there are so many billionaires whose fortunes are increasing so rapidly that there’s a “need” to track their wealth in real time, our priorities as a society may be out of whack.


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