In Front of Our Noses: Manipulating the Media Landscape
Trump admin helping pick winners and losers
“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”-George Orwell.
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The NYT reports: Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for an Ellison Takeover.
Larry and David Ellison have both spent time with Mr. Trump in recent months, and David Ellison attended Tuesday’s State of the Union address. Mr. Sarandos of Netflix quietly met with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office in November. On Thursday, Mr. Sarandos was in Washington to discuss the transaction with top administration and Justice Department officials, including Pam Bondi, the attorney general, and Omeed Assefi, the acting head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, according to people familiar with his schedule.
During those meetings, which were said to be cordial, Justice Department officials said they would conduct a fair but thorough review of the transaction, according to a person with knowledge of private conversations.
Mr. Sarandos’s visit was scheduled more than two weeks ago. But it occurred two days after Mr. Trump publicly encouraged Netflix to fire a board member, Susan Rice, who served as former President Barack Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser.
As a general matter, I am of the view that we are seeing too much media consolidation and was not thrilled at the potential Netflix acquisition. However, of the two options, Skydance acquiring Time-Warner strikes me as a far worse outcome. The Netflix acquisition would signal less competition in the entertainment industry and have negative impacts on consumers, but Skydance clearly has political motives for gaining control of CNN.
I would hasten to add that having a specific set of philosophical goals is not, per se, the issue. The issue is the combination of substantial consolidation of a number of key media properties under the control of a billionaire, with the express help of a sitting president who clearly wants to damage, if not outright silence, critics in the media.
As Media Matters notes:
Trump wanted Warner Bros. assets — particularly CNN, whose reporters he loathes — in the hands of an ally. His public statements and White House leaks made it crystal clear both that he preferred that Paramount purchase Warner Bros., and that his administration would corruptly wield its regulatory power to thwart rival bidders. And the strategy seems to have succeeded.
The result reeks of a “political deal” in which the president steered the ownership of a major news outlet to his crony. That’s unconscionable in a free society — but a familiar tactic of authoritarian leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who dismantled his country’s independent news media through such methods in service of his vision of “illiberal democracy,” which Trump seeks to emulate.
It’s working. In less than a year, CBS News and the massive social media platform TikTok, along with Paramount’s movie studios, have come under the thumb of a single family of pro-Trump billionaires. If the Warner Bros. purchase goes through, CNN, along with HBO and Warner’s movie business, will join them.
The notion that one company would control CBS News, CNN, and TikTok alone is a massively concerning amount of consolidation of control of information flows in the US. And that doesn’t include the rest of the Paramount/CBS/Time-Warner entertainment assets under discussion.
It seems worth noting that key media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, are owned by what can correctly be described as American oligarchs. Add Twitter to that list as well.
It would be concerning enough if this consolidation of control were happening without political manipulation, but we know that the Trump administration is helping steer the outcome.
This is just another piece in the authoritarian puzzle.
Will no one sue these meddlesome oligarchs?
There’s way too much consolidation of everything. Not just in the US, but all over the world. this allows for higher prices and lower quality, among other maladies.
And isn’t this what antitrust laws were supposed to prevent? The very wrong-headed Bork interpretation that “monopoly is ok as long as it doesn’t harm consumers,” doesn’t even apply anymore.
BTW, quite naturally a lot of talented journalists, producers, and editors will leave CNN or be fired. This is a good opportunity for the remaining media companies. Maybe Netflix can attempt a global streaming news service.
It’s not just the Ellisons, it’s Arab Middle Eastern money, which means bribes to Trump. IMO, that’s why Paramount won and why Netflix dropped out. And yes, this is very bad. CBS and CNN are both done for, as is the WaPo.
@Michael Reynolds: You describe CNN as “done for” which appears to mirror my thinking.
I never watch CNN. I have no way to watch CNN, in fact. I sometimes see clips on the internet, which I maybe watch once in a while. I feel as a “media takeover” they are a step behind.
But maybe it’s us who are three steps ahead? It’s hard to say. CNN averages 600K viewers a day, and that’s not nothin. But it’s also not Walter Cronkite’s 30 million on a good night.