Last year, Paramount decided to bribe Donald Trump to the tune of $16 million to help seal the deal for its merger with Skydance. To sweeten the pot, they decided to give Trump the scalp of his longtime critic Stephen Colbert. To round out the deal, they promised to hire an “ombudsman” to ensure CBS News would be “fair and balanced” toward Trump and Republicans.
Now, Bari Weiss, a pro-Israel zealot who parrots billionaires’ talking points and loathes wokeness, has been brought in by nepo baby David Ellison to essentially remake CBS News into a media organ for Trump and the broligarchy. Star correspondent Anderson Cooper just announced he’s not renewing his contract after Weiss intervened in his long-developing 60 Minutes story around the racist “white genocide” conspiracy lie promoted by MAGA to bring in white South African “refugees.”
Earlier in the week, CBS bent the knee to FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who invoked an archaic rule to censor Colbert’s interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico. In four months, Weiss has thoroughly destroyed the reputation of CBS News and its crown jewel, 60 Minutes.
Her boss, David Ellison, and his father, Larry Ellison, aren’t done. They’re still trying to acquire Warner Brothers, which would give the pro-Trump, pro genocide family control of CBS, Paramount, Warner Brothers, CNN, HBO, Comedy Central, TNT, TBS, and a host of other channels. Larry Ellison has already acquired and throttled TikTok, which the elite blame for radicalizing young people against Israel. Meanwhile, Musk has Twitter and Zuckerberg has Facebook.
The corporate consolidation and takeover of mass media is almost complete. This is what happens in dictatorships and oligarchies. Whoever controls information can control the masses. Truth is whatever the state says it is. Critics are censored, fired, or disappeared. Don’t believe the evidence of your eyes and ears when you can simply rely upon the lies and spin of Trump and his lackeys.
What could go wrong?
Media journalist Justin Baragona, author of Zeteo’s media newsletter, Ragebait, joins me to discuss the latest blunders at CBS News and the corporate media’s capitulation to Trump and the broligarchy’s anti-democratic agenda.
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