The Left has thrown a completely counterfactual fit about how the Paramount takeover of CBS created some kind of "MAGA-coded" news division under Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss. No one who watches network news daily right now can see much of a difference today between CBS and ABC and NBC. But mere internal questioning of whether CBS could attempt to be less biased to the Left has caused a tsunami of panic.
Now, as the Paramount merger with Warner Brothers-Discovery approaches its conclusion, 12 attorneys general filed a last-minute lawsuit to block it—but they won't say it's about keeping Weiss & Co. out of the CNN news business. It's led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and supported by 11 other Democrats, from Arizona to Minnesota to New Jersey.
It's comical to see news reports from NPR and CNBC pretending this is a nonpartisan crusade. They left the Democrat Party angle out of this entirely, even as Bonta tries to claim this is all about making sure Hollywood doesn't lose any moviemaking jobs. The pro-Bonta reporters aren't noticing what Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing to drive moviemaking out of California.
Leftists like Oliver Darcy of Status were miffed that these Democrats didn't explicitly object in their brief to the merger over its potential CNN effects, but everyone can guess that's part of the angst.
On NPR's "All Things Considered," anchor Scott Detrow asked vaguely about "the political overtones." Media reporter David Folkenflik didn't say Bonta was a Democrat, but he talked about him "standing in front of the big Hollywood sign that looms over LA, he said, quote, 'America has no kings in government or our economy.'"
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No kings? CNN and the other networks aren't a democracy. Internally, they are a one-party state like California, and any interloper who asks questions about a liberal tilt is treated like a human virus. It was the same for Folkenflik's editor Uri Berliner, who was cast out of NPR after attempting internally to bring any semblance of balance to the "news" product.
Folkenflik warned about the new Paramount overlords. Larry Ellison is "one of the richest people on Earth, an adviser and financial supporter of the president. His son, David Ellison ... a Hollywood producer, has given money to Democrats, but has celebrated Trump and brought in a new editor-in-chief at CBS News when they took over CBS and Paramount just last summer."
When Netflix first successfully bid for WBD, you didn't find the Folkenfliks of the world fretting that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and co-founder Reed Hastings were prominent individual donors and fundraisers for Barack Obama. That wasn't a red flag, because keeping CNN in the Obama fold isn't alarming. It's comforting.
Folkenflik added his Bari Weiss fright bite: "CBS, you know, would be perhaps under the same umbrella as CNN, which is currently part of Warner Bros. Discovery. That new editor-in-chief has criticized the mainstream media for being too anti-Trump, and several correspondents have left the network, been fired or resigned, criticizing her for bias."
Giggle when they call themselves the "mainstream media."
At CBS, arrogant leftists like "60 Minutes" activists Scott Pelley and Sharyn Alfonsi throwing fits of insubordination and getting fired was meant to imply there's been a massive sea change in what people see when they tune in on Sunday nights. Once again, viewers haven't seen a massive change in their stories. But leftists cannot abide anyone even questioning their aggressive partisanship to steer America toward that "right side of history."
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org.
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