{"id":45784,"date":"2025-12-27T22:20:49","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T06:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=45784"},"modified":"2025-12-27T22:20:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T06:20:50","slug":"cbs-and-cnn-are-being-sacrificed-to-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/12\/27\/cbs-and-cnn-are-being-sacrificed-to-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"CBS and CNN Are Being Sacrificed to Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Media conglomerates want the president\u2019s permission for mergers\u2014and control of news outlets is at stake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/author\/franklin-foer\/\">Franklin Foer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/3dof7JqD20iybhYAeYNyLuciTp4=\/0x0:4000x2250\/960x540\/media\/img\/mt\/2025\/12\/2025_12_19_The_Entertainment_Industry_Joins_the_Authoritarian_Economy\/original.png\" alt=\"Television cameras pointed at the White House\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Graeme Sloan \/ Bloomberg \/ Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>DECEMBER 22, 2025 (TheAtlantic.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/OSsc5dj8jydibQB2EbWg-T7WZME=\/875x0:3125x2250\/80x80\/media\/img\/mt\/2025\/12\/2025_12_19_The_Entertainment_Industry_Joins_the_Authoritarian_Economy\/original.png\" alt=\"Television cameras pointed at the White House\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><small><em>This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter.&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/newsletters\/sign-up\/one-story-to-read-today\/\"><em>Sign up for it here.<\/em><\/a><\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fate of Warner Bros. Discovery is no longer a regulatory matter. It is a medieval tournament, in which the king&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/business\/media\/paramount-netflix-warner-bros-battle-ellisons-a86fe15c?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqd8kqrUMAojkum8ClFj_gZo0Zg8h0L66DPGC2dmAs_yqJrjh9PtMMjWwXz-Xx8%3D&amp;gaa_ts=69406b0f&amp;gaa_sig=YK7DnY2opyxQQSBCWdbqGyctV4gohWW-_WRorCAnSD13P3iE4ja4wf8_AkeRu1g7dufsqGxRPy97h0WMGOHQlg%3D%3D\">invites<\/a>&nbsp;rival bidders to compete for his approval. To acquire the media company, the aspirants\u2014Paramount and Netflix\u2014will have to offer a sacrifice: Whoever can damage CNN the most&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/shorts\/J58IrjU6xYI\">stands<\/a>&nbsp;to walk away with the prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is one of those moments in Donald Trump\u2019s presidency when an event that would otherwise be recognized as a death knell for democracy somehow fails to elicit the outrage it deserves. Warner Bros. Discovery owns CNN, whose coverage Trump views as hostile to his administration. So he is abusing the government\u2019s merger-approval power in order to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/business\/media\/for-trump-the-warner-megadeal-talks-are-all-about-cnn-cdaab785\">insist<\/a>\u00a0that the next owner of the venerable outlet mold its journalism to his liking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More at:  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/2025\/12\/trump-paramount-netflix-cnn-cbs\/685349\/\">https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/2025\/12\/trump-paramount-netflix-cnn-cbs\/685349\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Media conglomerates want the president\u2019s permission for mergers\u2014and control of news outlets is at stake. By\u00a0Franklin Foer DECEMBER 22, 2025 (TheAtlantic.com) This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter.&nbsp;Sign up for it here. The fate of Warner Bros. Discovery is no longer a regulatory matter. It&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/12\/27\/cbs-and-cnn-are-being-sacrificed-to-trump\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45785,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45784\/revisions\/45785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}