Ellison family ownership of CNNnwoudl be disastrous for media bias

The off-again-on-again bid by Netflix to acquire ownership of Warner Bros-Discovery seems to be off again, this time probably permanently. And while you might not be particularly interested which global conglomerate owns which bit of Hollywood or who is in control of the Cartoon Network, there are other considerations that might be much more impactful for the United States and even the world.

Now that Netflix has pulled out of the deal, Warner Bros Discovery will almost certainly become owned by Paramount Skydance, which has aggressively pursued the hostile takeover. Paramount Skydance is part of the tech/media empire of Larry and David Ellison, and therein lies the danger. Warner Bros Discovery owns, among many other things, CNN, one of the few media voices still critical of Donald Trump and his push towards fascism.

Larry Ellison in particular has a close relationship with Trump, and was a major donor towards Trump's re-election. When the Ellisons' bought Paramount, CBS News saw a significant editorial shift and a converted effort to appeal more to conservative viewers. There is every likelihood that Trump nemesis CNN, almost certainly under strong pressure from Trump himself behind the scenes, will suffer the same fate. CNN CEO Mark Thompson felt compelled to issue a rather panicky memo to staff members, urging that they "don't jump to conclusions abouthe future until we know more", but CNN staff at all levels are clearly worried.

With the Warner Bros Discovery acquisition, the Trump-aligned Ellison family will have assembled media holdings to rival that of the (equally conservative) Murdoch empire, and critical, progressive-leaning news outlets will be an endangered species in the US. Other than CNN - and there were rumours of CNN already starting to shift rightwards back in 2022 - left-leaning (or even centre-leaning) media interest USA is limited to MSNBC, NPR and PBS, and, in print, the New York Times and (maybe) the Washington Post. The right-wing stranglehold on US media would be almost complete.

And, in case you are maybe not covinced that media bias can actually affect people's political views in this day and age, let me assure you it can. Like social media, the mainstream press can materially influence elections, whether they tell the truth ot not. Studies have clearly shown that when people change their news source their politics change too; it's that simple. And nobody knows this better than Donald J Trump and the MAGA movement.