Recommendations of the Editorial team
Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, has died at the age of 87. True to form, US President Donald Trump wasted no time in linking Turner’s death to his broader political plans.
After Turner sold CNN in 1996, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, Turner was “personally devastated by the deal because the new owners destroyed CNN, his ‘baby.’ It became woke – and that is pretty much the opposite of everything he stands for.”
But then the president shifted from personal remembrance to a blatant acknowledgment of what he wants for the industry that Turner left an irrevocable mark on.
Trump’s wish for CNN
“Perhaps the new buyers, wonderful people, will be able to restore CNN to its former credibility and glory,” Trump wrote.
Trump is alluding to the sale of Warner Bros. Discovery to Paramount Skydance, which already owns CBS News and a variety of other media companies. The Paramount-Skydance merger came about under explicit pressure from Trump – and now the President has made it unmistakably clear that he expressly welcomes further consolidation of the already largely synchronized American media landscape.
The money behind it comes from a trusted source: Oracle founder and close Trump ally Larry Ellison. His son David Ellison has headed the media division of the family empire since the merger and has brought the various channels much more in line with Trump. CBS News, for example, has a new boss: the conservative media pioneer Bari Weiss, who was installed after Ellison bought her news and commentary portal “The Free Press”. Trump has long been at odds with CNN – which is why a friendly Ellison takeover is a great triumph for him personally. The Ellisons even celebrated it openly: They threw a party in Trump’s honor while they waited for final approval of the Warner Bros. Discovery deal.
This is more than an insider game in the media industry. Aggressive corporate takeovers, mergers and concentration processes are being waved through by the Trump administration. The main beneficiaries are the Ellisons, and the acquired companies are adapting their editorial course to the president’s agenda. Even the entertainment offering is changing – from TV series to sports. Paramount recently won a bidding war and secured broadcast rights to the UFC for nearly a decade. The UFC is a growing player in the professional sports business that Trump personally values. Paramount’s streaming offering is packed with series that aren’t explicitly pro-Trump, but strike the same notes that the conservative movement repeatedly uses in its endless culture wars.
State-affiliated media monoculture
None of this is a coincidence. We are witnessing the birth of a state-affiliated media monoculture that, if left unchecked, will continue to grow until there is nothing left to see except 24/7 propaganda sanctioned by whatever successor regime brings the conservative movement to power next. That sounds apocalyptic – but it’s not far from reality. David Ellison has claimed that CNN will retain its editorial independence; But how much that’s worth can already be seen at CBS, where Weiss, the new boss appointed by Ellison, cuts and bends contributions for political reasons. Whatever Ted Turner may have thought of “woke,” it’s hard to imagine that the creator of one of the most successful independent cable news operations in history would want his legacy to be bulldozed by a complacent consortium of billionaires eager to kiss the boots of whoever happens to be in power.
