from the a-grand-performance-for-the-king dept
With the cowards at CBS/Paramount having paid their $16 million bribe to the King, Trump’s FCC has shortly ended its phony “investigation” into the media giant, and given its rubber stamp approval to the corporate’s $8 billion merger with Skydance (owned by Trump’s mates within the Ellison household).
In a press release, Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr does a fully lovely job pretending to be a critical grownup regulator, insisting that the FCC is forcing the brand new CBS to stick to quite a few new necessities that serve the general public curiosity (spoiler: they don’t).
Amongst them embrace a flimsy promise to scale back CBS bias in its journalism (learn: be friendlier to Republicans and Trump), a promise to get rid of DEI (learn: be extra racist and sexist in firm hiring and HR practices), and spend more cash on native information networks (learn: guarantee more cash flows to proper wing propaganda shops like Sinclair Broadcasting pretending to be native information).
Carr shouldn’t be an excellent religion actor. He has completely little interest in truthful and unbiased journalism. Each motion he takes exhibits a violent disdain for real journalism, free speech, and the First Amendment that’s broadly despised by Republicans and Democrats alike.
However in his assertion, he desperately desires you to suppose he’s “fixing” U.S. journalism by enabling but extra media consolidation and letting Trump’s billionaire mates purchase CBS (which had already spent the last few years kissing Republican ass, apparently to no avail):
“Specifically, Skydance has made written commitments to make sure that the brand new firm’s programming embodies a range of viewpoints from throughout the political and ideological spectrum. Skydance will even undertake measures that may root out the bias that has undermined belief within the nationwide information media. These commitments, if carried out, would allow CBS to function within the public curiosity and deal with truthful, unbiased, and fact-based protection.”
It’s ironic that Republicans spent many years whining in regards to the “Equity Doctrine,” long-discarded FCC guidelines requiring one thing vaguely resembling steadiness in broadcast information protection, however then flip round and embrace one thing like this, feebly pretending that authorities can and may remedy “media bias.”
The inconsistency is as a result of that is all efficiency by radical authoritarians. These circumstances are all meaningless, and this isn’t about “restoring belief in information”; it’s about waging an data warfare on knowledgeable consensus and anyone that doesn’t agree with proper wing ideology.
CBS is being bought by Larry Ellison and his son David, who’re close friends of Trump. They’re making it very clear they’re going to purchase CBS, hire some right-wing bullshit artist like Bari Weiss to “shape daily news coverage,” and switch the CBS Information division right into a feckless simulacrum of actual journalism in service to prosperous proper wingers. Very similar to what’s taking place at locations like CNN and the Washington Post.
The Ellison household can also be probably first in line to purchase TikTok, if it’s ever really bought, which might be built-in to create an excellent bigger and stronger and modernized Republican messaging machine (assuming Larry Ellison’s brunchlord nepobaby son has any competency, which isn’t assured).
That is a part of a not significantly refined gambit by America’s proper wing oligarchs to hollow out what’s left of U.S. media, and turn it into a sorry mash of lazy infotainment, corporate earlobe nibbling, and right wing propaganda. Whereas concurrently insisting, with a straight face, that they’re eliminating media bias, restoring belief in journalism, and defending free speech.
For those who purchase any of it, for even a second, now we have some wonderful new dietary supplements crammed with rat shit and sawdust that can do wonders on your complexion.
Filed Underneath: authoritarians, bias, brendan carr, disinformation, donald trump, fairness doctrine, fcc, media bias, media consolidation, propaganda
Corporations: cbs, paramount, skydance
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