More news holdings for Paramount harms press and bottom line

“Ellison has already shown his cards. When the Trump administration unconstitutionally demanded editorial concessions from Ellison’s Skydance in exchange for government approval of its takeover of Paramount and CBS News, he obliged, even appointing a Trump loyalist as a so-called ’bias ombudsman.’ CBS has since repeatedly censored journalists or altered its coverage to please Trump and his allies. There is no reason to believe that this proven capitulator will behave any differently this time around — in fact, he’s already reportedly promised Trump ’sweeping changes’ at CNN, including firing people Trump dislikes.

“Ellison will readily throw the First Amendment, CNN’s reporters, and HBO’s filmmakers under the bus if they stand in the way of expanding his corporate empire and fattening his pockets. But censorship is bad for business. Warner executives and shareholders should recognize that selling companies that depend on the First Amendment to a censorial White House puppet is not only morally wrong but harmful to their bottom line. And lawmakers, state attorneys general, and anyone else in a position to intervene should make clear that they will not stand by as the Trump administration abuses its power to unconstitutionally extract content-based concessions from news companies.”