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slowin • yesterday at 9:57 PM • 12 replies • view on HN

This is more consolidation of US media under extremely pro-Israel ownership. I don't think this will work out as well as they hope (look at CBS -- Bari Weiss has driven it into the ground) but it's scary how much US media a foreign adversary now has direct editorial control over, including both "news" and "entertainment", including TikTok.

https://www.972mag.com/ellisons-paramount-tiktok-israel-medi...


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benced • yesterday at 11:52 PM

I'm not pro-Israel by any means but foreign adversary is a bit much.

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elcritch • yesterday at 11:20 PM

Let’s check where much of the ownership and money come from. From the LA Times:

> The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday granted Paramount Skydance’s request to allow Middle Eastern royal families to hold a substantial stake in a merged Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery.

> Foreign investors, including the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, are slated to indirectly own nearly 50% of the equity in David Ellison’s proposed mega-studio. That will give them a hefty stake in CBS, CNN, Comedy Central, HBO and two historic Hollywood film studios.

So foreign “adversaries” literally own enormous stakes in these companies and have been cleared by the FCC. Yet only possible pro-Israel influence by Ellison gets called out?

1: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/20... 2: https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2026/04/15/qatar_is...

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s3p • yesterday at 9:59 PM

Is it possible the next administration sues to break them up? Couldn't they also just launch endless investigations of the owners until they spun it off into its own thing

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tootie • yesterday at 11:39 PM

Is Israel the main concern? They gave tens of millions to Trump. They are now Republican media.

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ethanpil • yesterday at 10:12 PM

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fortzi • yesterday at 10:22 PM

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melbournesky • yesterday at 10:25 PM

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starik36 • today at 12:07 AM

You've managed to work your favorite conspiracy into this completely unrelated conversation as well! Congrats!

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FridayoLeary • yesterday at 11:35 PM

And what's wrong with that?

I think it's great that the America supports Israel, whose values and interests basically align with the West, over the rest of the Middle East, Russia and China with their values, which being as diplomatic as possible, do not.

Just take a look at all the countries that are the most against Israel. They are a mixture of failed states, third world and what they all share in common is a distressing lack of regard for human rights. Both of other nationalities and their own. Europe is unfortunately going in that direction, and I believe it's no coincience that they are simultaneously becoming worse countries and more anti Israel. It's not causation but it is correlation.

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ramesh31 • yesterday at 10:45 PM

Under what criteria exactly is Israel a "foreign adversary"...?

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slg • yesterday at 10:49 PM

>but it's scary how much US media a foreign adversary now has direct editorial control over

It's not antisemitic to criticize Israel, but this language is verging on antisemitic because Israel very much does not have "direct editorial control" over Skydance. David Ellison is the one with "direct editorial control" and you can certainly say he's "extremely pro-Israel" but he himself is not "a foreign adversary" by any definition of those words. So either you're being hyperbolic with the meaning of "direct editorial control" or you're insinuating that David Ellison will defer to Israel on everything because he's Jewish which is a common antisemitic trope[1]. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume the former, but the latter is enough of a possibility that I would suggest rephrasing this comment to avoid giving supporters of Israel a legitimate line of complaint against your underlying point.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_loyalty#Jews

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