The Billionaire Trump Supporter Who Will Soon Own the News - Full article at link

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OPINION
GUEST ESSAY

By William D. Cohan
Mr. Cohan is a founding partner of Puck and a former Wall Street banker.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/opinion/larry-ellison-paramount-cbs-tiktok.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nU8.KnVi.mWT4I1Ohm3lm&smid=url-share

"Larry Ellison is already a major stakeholder in CBS and Paramount. Now CNN and HBO are in his sights, and a big TikTok deal is close. If all goes as anticipated, this tech billionaire, already one of the richest men in the world and a founder of Oracle, is poised, at 81, to become one of the most powerful media and entertainment moguls America has ever seen.

For the rest of us, the effect of Mr. Ellison’s gambit could be every bit as consequential, if not more so, than what happened a generation ago when Rupert Murdoch brought his brand of Down Under snark and cynicism to create what has become Fox News, intensifying our political polarization.

Mr. Ellison’s expected incursion into Hollywood and Big Media, if successful, could also go well beyond what other tech moguls like Jeff Bezos and Marc Benioff have attempted through their acquisitions of The Washington Post and Time magazine, respectively. For those men, the acquisitions were more like expensive hobbies.

Mr. Ellison is up to something very different: transforming himself into a media magnate. Along with his son, David, he will have a material stake in a powerful social media platform, an iconic Hollywood movie studio and one of the largest content streaming services, as well as two of the country’s largest news organizations. Given Mr. Ellison’s friendship with, and affinity for, Donald Trump, an increasingly emboldened president could be getting an extraordinarily powerful media ally — in other words, the very last thing our country needs right now..."