{"id":238434,"date":"2025-10-25T04:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T04:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/238434\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T04:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T04:09:11","slug":"trumps-toxic-influence-looms-over-paramount-skydances-bid-to-buy-warner-bros-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/238434\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s toxic influence looms over Paramount Skydance\u2019s bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Looming over the future of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of cable networks CNN and HBO, are the preferences of President Donald Trump<\/a> \u2014 particularly, his attraction to media companies that serve his personal and political goals.<\/p>\n

Paramount Skydance<\/a>, the media conglomerate owned by Trump-friendly billionaire David Ellison, reportedly has had its sights<\/a> set on Warner Bros. Discovery after the Trump administration approved its merger over the summer \u2014 a move that has led to concerns about a potential MAGA-fication of CBS News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump has praised<\/a> Ellison and his father, Larry \u2014 an uberwealthy member of the rich cadre of men Trump has tapped<\/a> to oversee a takeover of TikTok in the U.S. \u2014 as \u201csupporters\u201d and \u201cfriends,\u201d and the president has claimed CBS will be better off in the younger Ellison\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

Now, a whisper campaign reportedly has emerged involving allies of the Ellison and Trump camps, the purpose of which is to nudge Warner Bros. Discovery into Paramount Skydance\u2019s ownership.<\/p>\n

CNN\u2019s Brian Stelter reported Thursday<\/a> on an effort by Ellison\u2019s allies who are \u201cprivately arguing that he is the only buyer who would pass muster with Trump administration regulators.\u201d Conservative columnist and Fox News contributor Charles Gasparino reported in the New York Post on Thursday<\/a> that, from the Trump side, the administration \u201cfavors Paramount Skydance to buy Warner Bros. Discovery \u2014 and a number of rival bidders are likely to face stiff hurdles from US regulators in the blockbuster auction.\u201d Gasparino quoted a senior Trump administration official as saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cWho owns Warner Bros. Discovery is very important to the administration,\u201d a senior Trump administration official told On The Money. \u201cThe Warner board needs to think very seriously not just on the price competition but which player in the suitor pool has been successful getting a deal done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that points to the Ellisons,\u201d the senior administration official added.<\/p>\n

MSNBC has not independently confirmed that reporting, but the prospect of Paramount\u2019s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is raising alarm bells among Democratic lawmakers. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts explained the risks of such consolidation in a short video, saying it reeks of political influence and could lead to price hikes:<\/p>\n

Trump, his administration and the broader MAGA movement appear to be in hot pursuit of the goal that Hungary\u2019s authoritarian leader, Viktor Orb\u00e1n, prescribed for conservatives when he told them in 2022<\/a> that the key to political control is control of the media.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s assault on the independent press has looked every bit as illiberal as Orb\u00e1n\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Trump appears to have taken the advice to heart. He has declared that broadcast networks that air criticisms of him should have their licenses revoked<\/a> for airing content he doesn\u2019t like. He has filed punitive lawsuits<\/a> against outlets in an apparent attempt to dissuade negative coverage. And his Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, issued a thinly veiled public threat<\/a> urging TV station owners to \u201ctake action on [Jimmy] Kimmel\u201d after the late-night TV host criticized Republicans\u2019 responses to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s assault on the independent press has looked every bit as illiberal as Orb\u00e1n\u2019s. The prospect of one of Trump\u2019s self-described \u201cfriends\u201d vacuuming up yet another major media company, as would be the case if Paramount Skydance acquires Warner Bros. Discovery, would do little to quell comparisons to Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Hungary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looming over the future of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of cable networks CNN and HBO, are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,348],"class_list":["post-238434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}