Media (Traditional/Social Media) News

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www.nytimes.com

James Murdoch’s Company Said to Be in Talks to Acquire Most of Vox Media

A deal for Vox Media would elevate Mr. Murdoch’s company, Lupa Systems, as a major player in U.S. media.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

Lupa Systems, the company controlled by the media scion James Murdoch, is in talks to acquire major parts of Vox Media, the parent company of New York magazine and a podcast network with prominent hosts like Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

Vox Media has been weighing its future for months, including a sale of all or parts of its business. The sale process has drawn multiple potential suitors, including the media company Versant, and it is still possible Vox Media will sell to another acquirer, take on investment or decide not to sell.

A deal for the company would elevate Mr. Murdoch’s Lupa Systems as a player in U.S. media. The company has a majority stake in Tribeca Enterprises, the parent company of the Tribeca Film Festival, and it has financially backed Bodhi Tree Systems, one of India’s biggest media investors. Quadrivium, the foundation that Mr. Murdoch founded with his wife, Kathryn, has backed The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom focused on gender and politics, and The Bulwark, a so-called “Never Trump” digital media company.
 
As Calla is the board's self-proclaimed and self-appointed arbiter of media credibility, this will no doubt concern him deeply.



Two press freedom groups are accusing Paramount Skydance owner Larry Ellison of promising “favors” to the Trump administration to win regulatory approval in its bid to take over CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.

Those favors allegedly include making “sweeping” staff changes at CNN, a network that President Donald Trump often bashes as “fake news.”

The groups, Freedom of the Press Foundation and Reporters Without Borders, own shares in Paramount Skydance, and sent a letter to the company’s chief legal officer Thursday demanding to see internal documents that could be related to Ellison’s alleged attempt to curry favor with the White House.

The groups cited a Delaware law allowing stockholders to inspect the books and records “for any proper purpose.”

According to the letter, the groups expressed “credible concern that Paramount leadership has offered, solicited, or effectuated a corrupt exchange,” and alleged that promises made to Trump “constitute a breach of fiduciary duties” that opens up the company to a “range of potential civil and criminal penalties.”

Last summer, the Trump administration approved the Ellison family’s bid to acquire Paramount, which includes CBS. Son David Ellison brought in Free Press founder Bari Weiss to head CBS News and make sweeping staffing and editorial changes. Critics have accused her of pandering to the Trump administration in its news coverage.

Larry Ellison reportedly told Trump that he would “implement the CBS playbook” at CNN if the merger is approved, which would mean removing anchors and commentators at the network that Trump doesn’t like, the letter alleged.

Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders overwhelmingly approved the proposed merger just two weeks ago.

“Investors have supported the Larry Ellison family takeover, which would become the biggest Hollywood merger in nearly a decade,” reported The Los Angeles Times. “The deal would pay Warner stockholders $31 per share — four times the stock price a year ago.”
 
korgguy1971 said:
As Calla is the board's self-proclaimed and self-appointed arbiter of media credibility, this will no doubt concern him deeply.



Two press freedom groups are accusing Paramount Skydance owner Larry Ellison of promising “favors” to the Trump administration to win regulatory approval in its bid to take over CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.

Those favors allegedly include making “sweeping” staff changes at CNN, a network that President Donald Trump often bashes as “fake news.”

The groups, Freedom of the Press Foundation and Reporters Without Borders, own shares in Paramount Skydance, and sent a letter to the company’s chief legal officer Thursday demanding to see internal documents that could be related to Ellison’s alleged attempt to curry favor with the White House.

The groups cited a Delaware law allowing stockholders to inspect the books and records “for any proper purpose.”

According to the letter, the groups expressed “credible concern that Paramount leadership has offered, solicited, or effectuated a corrupt exchange,” and alleged that promises made to Trump “constitute a breach of fiduciary duties” that opens up the company to a “range of potential civil and criminal penalties.”

Last summer, the Trump administration approved the Ellison family’s bid to acquire Paramount, which includes CBS. Son David Ellison brought in Free Press founder Bari Weiss to head CBS News and make sweeping staffing and editorial changes. Critics have accused her of pandering to the Trump administration in its news coverage.

Larry Ellison reportedly told Trump that he would “implement the CBS playbook” at CNN if the merger is approved, which would mean removing anchors and commentators at the network that Trump doesn’t like, the letter alleged.

Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders overwhelmingly approved the proposed merger just two weeks ago.

“Investors have supported the Larry Ellison family takeover, which would become the biggest Hollywood merger in nearly a decade,” reported The Los Angeles Times. “The deal would pay Warner stockholders $31 per share — four times the stock price a year ago.”
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Of course. One of the reasons Trump 2.0 wanted the Ellisons to get this merger instead of their opponents was that it gave them control of CNN, their most hated media nemesis. I fully expect that within a year or less CNN is going to resemble, at best, what CBS News has become, and more likely will be Fox News 2.0 - a Trump propaganda network.
 
1moretimeagain said:
What if we water it down?



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The goal of all of this is keep Trump happy so that Ellison can keep buying up more and more media properties and getting favorable deals from Trump 2.0. Sacrificing ("killing") CBS News is a small price to pay for Ellison if it keeps Trump happy. Scott Pelley is exactly right - Bari was brought in to force CBS News to move in a pro-Trump direction (under the bullshit guise of "not just catering to elites", whatever that means). She's fired almost every journalist at CBS who was willing to fairly report on what the Trump administration is up to, and has replaced them with hacks who will do what they're told. 60 Minutes is the last sacred CBS News cow to fall. I doubt you'll ever again see 60 Minutes do a report that's critical of anything in the Trump administration, like they did earlier with their expose of Trump's immigrant centers and the immigrant prison in El Salvador.

And CNN is next. Anybody who thinks there won't be a bloodbath and reckoning at that network in a few months in fooling themselves. If anything, Ellison will be even rougher with CNN than CBS News, because he knows that taking a hatchet to that network will please Dear Leader and MAGA Nation to no end.
 
Mulberry Heel said:
The goal of all of this is keep Trump happy so that Ellison can keep buying up more and more media properties and getting favorable deals from Trump 2.0. Sacrificing ("killing") CBS News is a small price to pay for Ellison if it keeps Trump happy. Scott Pelley is exactly right - Bari was brought in to force CBS News to move in a pro-Trump direction (under the bullshit guise of "not just catering to elites", whatever that means). She's fired almost every journalist at CBS who was willing to fairly report on what the Trump administration is up to, and has replaced them with hacks who will do what they're told. 60 Minutes is the last sacred CBS News cow to fall. I doubt you'll ever again see 60 Minutes do a report that's critical of anything in the Trump administration, like they did earlier with their expose of Trump's immigrant centers and the immigrant prison in El Salvador.

And CNN is next. Anybody who thinks there won't be a bloodbath and reckoning at that network in a few months in fooling themselves. If anything, Ellison will be even rougher with CNN than CBS News, because he knows that taking a hatchet to that network will please Dear Leader and MAGA Nation to no end.
Click to expand...
Does anybody *not* think that?
 
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