from the America-last dept
MAGA Republicans spent yr swaddling themselves in phony “America first!” rhetoric (together with struggling an embolism over Chinese language affect over TikTok), however have suddenly gone mysteriously quiet now that $24 billion in Saudi, Chinese language, and different international money helps to bankroll proper wing billionaire Larry Ellison’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers.
The Wall Avenue Journal (Reuters non-paywalled alternative) signifies that Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (PIF) has finalized plans to present roughly $10 billion to assist fund the deal, with one other $14 billion break up between Qatar Funding Authority and Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding. China’s Tencent can be anticipated to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to fund Ellison’s media play.
As a result of the Trump administration is a corrupt, pay-to-play kakistocracy subservient to the pursuits of worldwide oligarchs and autocrats, Paramount executives don’t count on any significant regulatory overview, regardless of the apparent competitors, labor, and international affect points that plague the foremost deal:
Paramount executives don’t count on the funds’ involvement to set off a overview by the Committee on Overseas Funding within the U.S. or Federal Communications Fee, the Journal stated.
The Trump DOJ claims it’s conducting a severe overview (and has already despatched out some subpoenas), however despite media pretense, there’s completely zero motive to imagine the DOJ is a reputable actor on this enviornment, particularly after the Trump administration purged the handful of even remotely serious antitrust reformers peppered with out the ranks of MAGA.
Consequently, the one semi-serious impediment to deal completion is a likely looming lawsuit from a coalition of state attorneys general, who’ve ample proof that the deal will result in mass layoffs and better costs as a result of ridiculous $111 billion price ticket and broad aggressive erosion.
That’s earlier than you even get to the issues with having Center East nations again the continuing Republican plan to dominate consolidated company media and destroy what’s left of U.S. journalism. Democrats have performatively urged FCC boss Brendan Carr to investigate, however that’s clearly not occurring, regardless of Carr’s historical past of phony outrage at international authorities meddling.
This has all been a fairly commonplace street map for autocracies around the globe, including Orban’s Hungary. Social gathering-friendly oligarchs purchase up all of the media, which then will get to work pummeling the general public with proper wing propaganda whereas the federal government strangles impartial journalism simply out of body.
It is going to proceed to speed up right here within the States till the general public reaches crucial mass and our so-called “opposition occasion” develops an precise, useful spine and cultivates extra ruthless management.
Filed Underneath: agitprop, antitrust, china, consolidation, corruption, journalism, media, propaganda, saudi arabia
Firms: paramount, warner bros. discovery
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