Concerns are mounting about the state of the US media landscape now that it looks increasingly likely that Paramount Skydance—a company controlled by the son of billionaire Larry Ellison, a donor to President Donald Trump—will succeed in its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.
One day after Netflix announced that it was dropping its previously accepted bid to buy Warner, many critics demanded that antitrust laws be invoked to block the Paramount-Warner merger from going through.
Alvaro Bedoya, former commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, warned that the Ellison family could soon use their control over vast swaths of US media properties to engage in mass censorship, and he pointed to their decisions to cancel Stephen Colbert’s program and to refuse to air an interview with Democratic US Senate candidate James Talarico.
This would have been illegal before Bill Clinton’s signature legislation the Telecom Reform Act.
Now now, let’s not forget that Clinton also signed the DMCA.
An Epstein client who enabled consolidation and control of the communications all Americans?
WOW who would have THOUGHT
It still is illegal per our unenforced antitrust laws.
And even if it didn’t pass back then, I doubt this administration would be constrained by such things as the law.
This is potentially one of those butterfly effect things, We would be in a totally different landscape if Bill Clinton was never elected.
Know the history.
Back when radio/TV were just getting started, the FCC created a set of rules to make sure that the public would be well informed. One company could only own two radio stations [AM and FM] and one TV station in a town. Even the Big Three netowrks were limited to six stations across the country.
Another rule was that if a station broadcast any editorial they had to offer equal time for opposing views.
After Watergate, the Right think tanks realized that the reason Nixon went down was that there was a robust news gathering media that was beyond their control. As soon as Reagan took office he started ‘deregulating’ the media. By 1996, the Fairness Doctrine was dead.
For those who are about to start crying about cable TV not being the same as broadcast; the FCC covers cable. The GOP made sure that Fox News could be as terrible as it is.
not exactly, while Fairness did provide equal time for political views, it also kept anchors from just outright lying, or obfuscating the truth for a story. once that was killed under Reagan, conservative talk radio blew up. and then that brings us to today.
Back when radio/TV were just getting started, the FCC created a set of rules to make sure that the public would be well informed.
This is revisionist.
The FCC created a set of rules to manage a broadcasting cartel. Changes in technology shifted the domain of ownership from the production companies to the telecommunication companies and eventually the data center companies.
But we started as a cartel. We’re still a cartel. The FCC has done nothing to change that (and made many moves to entrench it - the forced sale of TikTok being only the latest).
As soon as Reagan took office he started ‘deregulating’ the media. By 1996, the Fairness Doctrine was dead.
The Fairness Doctrine was an enrichment of the two party system. Reagan simply took the next logical step and made it a one party system.
FCC did not force the sale of TikTok, Congress did
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr labeled TikTok a “clear and present danger” to US national security, urging its removal from app stores due to concerns over data access by China. Citing reports of ByteDance personnel in Beijing accessing sensitive American user data, Carr argued the app acts as a surveillance tool
This is revisionist
The forced sale of Tiktok was passed by Congress and pushed by Biden who kept reiterating it was a threat
Clinton’s Telecom reform act did more damage than removing the fairness doctrine
I expect a whole lot of shows to be completely ruined on HBO. How long until John Oliver’s show is cancelled? Bill Maher will probably bend the knee and stay on.
CNN was already quite corporate as-is, I expect they’ll become ridiculously obsequious, just like CBS.
The right wing will probably think both are still too “woke”, since they (and honestly, a lot of the centrists and low-info, too) have bought into the stupid myth of a “liberal media”, LOL. The existence of a mainstream “liberal media” in America has never really been a thing.
Bill Maher is a spineless weasel, boomer asshat
One far right family of billionaires
Any competent antitrust regulator would block this without second thought.
American antitrust law is a joke.
The laws are still there. They’re just not enforced.
Which is the punchline of said joke.
and has been for some time…
When is the last time they did anything substantive? I can only really think of breaking up Ma Bell. The lawsuit started in 1974 and the breakup didn’t happen until 1984.
It’s not like David Ellison has his own money. This is all Larry- a confirmed Zionist btw
I guess I’m unsubscribing from HBO Max as well as paramount plus….
Unsubscribe from ALL streaming services.
👆 pirating is back
I just use criterion
What is criterion?
Criterion channel. Not sure what their parent company is if they have one, but they have curated movies that are usually artsy or have some critically acclaimed awards. I guess some would say a streaming service for movie snobs.
Fantastic. Thank you for this. I’d never heard of them before, so I’ll check it out.
It’s an unbelievable gift. You can pretty much play anything on Criterion and it will be somewhat nutritious (as the Buddhists would say)
So there goes John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, too.
Fuck.
Nah, he’ll be good! Just like Colbert.
What if I told you that you don’t have to subscribe to watch it?
I’m doing that already but I also fully expect new management to not renew their contract the same Paramount did to Colbert.
Too big to fail is ALSO too big to care.
Good riddance. Those are all trash, anyway
Disagree that HBO is trash. But the issue is that even if one doesn’t like and avoids them, they shape the perception of other people. So no matter how much/little oneself engages with them, you can’t really escape the indirect effects.
