Who controls the news when war breaks out?
Who controls the news when war breaks out?
- Wed, Mar 11 2026 at 3:08 PM
Mark,
On Feb. 28, Trump ordered airstrikes on Iran without congressional authorization. Nearly two-thirds of people in the U.S. oppose them.1 As violence spreads across the Middle East, and warmongers back home try to shape the narrative, the public is left asking: Where can we go to understand what's happening and why?
That question is about to get a lot harder to answer.
David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance is poised to take over Warner Bros. Discovery.2 If regulators let this deal go through, the Ellison family will control CBS, CNN, HBO, Discovery, Nickelodeon and a major share of TikTok. One uber-wealthy family, with deep ties to the president, should not be in charge of so much of what the country watches, reads and talks about during a time of war.
If that sounds familiar, it should. Free Press was founded in 2003 because corporate media had failed to challenge the Bush administration’s lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Twenty-three years later, we've entered another war with a president who has demonstrated time and again that he will undermine the First Amendment to control the editorial decisions of media outlets. Indeed, Paramount has already given the president favorable coverage in exchange for government approval of its terrible takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Here's a quick refresher on how the corruption played out when Ellison took over Paramount just last year:- Paramount paid Trump $16 million to settle a frivolous lawsuit against CBS.
- Then they fired Stephen Colbert after he called the payout what it was: a bribe.
- Esteemed 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens resigned, citing the loss of journalistic independence.
- Ellison installed a former Trump ambassador as a "bias monitor" at CBS and appointed conservative blogger Bari Weiss as CBS News' editor-in-chief.3
- Weiss has already delayed the airing of two 60 Minutes investigations into Trump-administration actions.
- Legendary CBS News producer Mary Walsh, on her way out the door, said management told her to tailor her reporting to a particular part of the political spectrum. She said she didn't know how to do that.4
Now the Ellisons want CNN too. They've already promised “sweeping changes” there, which is Trump-speak for firing journalists and anchors, killing stories and replacing the news with MAGA propaganda.5
And we’re not just worried about the Ellisons: The Nexstar-Tegna merger would combine the first- and third-largest owners of local-TV stations under another wealthy Trump ally. Nexstar has shown that it’s willing to go along with the president’s calls for censorship. It was the first broadcaster to yank Jimmy Kimmel’s show when FCC Chairman Brendan Carr pressured them to silence him. Carr is ready to rubber-stamp the deal any day, even though it violates FCC policy and federal law.6
This massive media consolidation means fewer foreign correspondents on the ground, more shouting heads in studios and owners who answer to the president instead of the public. The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post already gutted its foreign bureaus. Years of budget cuts across the industry have thinned the ranks of reporters who can honestly and reliably cover what's happening in the Middle East.7
We were founded to fight for a media system that is independent of government interference, that can support a just and multiracial democracy. As newsrooms shrink and the president seeks to exert control over what U.S. news media reports, we must hold the line on who controls the media and protect the public's right to know what our government is doing in our names.
Thank you,
Jessica and all of us at Free Press
P.S. Free Press doesn't take a cent from business, government or political parties, because our independence is everything.1. “59% of Americans Disapprove of Iran Strikes,” CNN, Mar. 2, 2026
2. “Paramount Skydance's Takeover of Warner Bros. Is Bad News for Workers, Consumers and Free Expression,” Free Press, Feb. 2026
3. “Inside Bari Weiss's Hostile Takeover of CBS News,” The New Yorker, Jan. 26, 2026
4. “CBS News Producer on Political Reporting Under Paramount-Warner Bros.,” The Hollywood Reporter, 2026
5. “CNN and the Paramount-Ellison-Bari Weiss-WBD Merger,” CNN, Feb. 27, 2026
6. “Dozens of Groups Send FCC a Letter of Support for Petition to Deny Illegal Nexstar-Tegna Merger,” Free Press
7. “Iran War Media Coverage,” Status, 2026
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