America First? Paramount Finalizes $24 Billion In Middle East Backing For Warner Bros Deal
from the America-last dept
MAGA Republicans spent year swaddling themselves in phony “America first!” rhetoric (including suffering an embolism over Chinese influence over TikTok), but have suddenly gone mysteriously quiet now that $24 billion in Saudi, Chinese, and other foreign cash is helping to bankroll right wing billionaire Larry Ellison’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers.
The Wall Street Journal (Reuters non-paywalled alternative) indicates that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has finalized plans to provide roughly $10 billion to help fund the deal, with another $14 billion split between Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding. China’s Tencent is also expected to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to fund Ellison’s media play.
Because the Trump administration is a corrupt, pay-to-play kakistocracy subservient to the interests of global oligarchs and autocrats, Paramount executives don’t expect any meaningful regulatory review, despite the obvious competition, labor, and foreign influence issues that plague the major deal:
Paramount executives do not expect the funds’ involvement to trigger a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. or Federal Communications Commission, the Journal said.
The Trump DOJ claims it’s conducting a serious review (and has already sent out some subpoenas), but despite media pretense, there’s absolutely zero reason to assume the DOJ is a credible actor in this arena, especially after the Trump administration purged the handful of even remotely serious antitrust reformers peppered without the ranks of MAGA.
As a result, the only semi-serious obstacle to deal completion is a likely looming lawsuit from a coalition of state attorneys general, who have ample evidence that the deal will result in mass layoffs and higher prices due to the ridiculous $111 billion price tag and broad competitive erosion.
That’s before you even get to the problems with having Middle East countries back the ongoing Republican plan to dominate consolidated corporate media and destroy what’s left of U.S. journalism. Democrats have performatively urged FCC boss Brendan Carr to investigate, but that’s obviously not happening, despite Carr’s history of phony outrage at foreign government meddling.
This has all been a pretty standard road map for autocracies around the world, including Orban’s Hungary. Party-friendly oligarchs buy up all the media, which then gets to work pummeling the public with right wing propaganda while the government strangles independent journalism just out of frame.
It will continue to accelerate here in the States until the public reaches critical mass and our so-called “opposition party” develops an actual, functional backbone and cultivates more ruthless leadership.
Filed Under: agitprop, antitrust, china, consolidation, corruption, journalism, media, propaganda, saudi arabia
Companies: paramount, warner bros. discovery
Comments on “America First? Paramount Finalizes $24 Billion In Middle East Backing For Warner Bros Deal”
Classic republican playbook...
Honestly you can look at everything the republicans have done for the last 40 years and every single bad policy, bad laws and “screw the American workers harder” concession they have ever given to the corporations and the millionaires/billionaires, has been coated in (sickeningly dishonest/deceptive) patriotic sounding names. No exceptions.
It is always named some flavor of patriotic sounding name that makes anyone opposing them sound like an America hating person. This is not accidental either Trump simply dialed the dishonesty to not just 11 but 17. It works because republican voters are deathly allergic to reading anything beyond the patriotic sounding names. If they need to know anything beyond it they trust that FOX News will tell them what to believe. No thinking required. Ignorance being treated as some desirable trait, a kind of barrier to accountability that separates them from the disastrous outcomes republican politicians are so infamous for.
Propaganda
Somewhere in the depths of hell the ghost of Goebbels is snickering. “You da man Brendan!”
Republican voters think this is awesome. This is actually who they are as people.
What do you get?
Free range Capitalism.
He who has the most money WINS..
Isnt this wonderful, with the idea that Everyone was Bitching, when a FEW YT and Broadcast Channels were running A News group SUPPORTED by Qatar?
Re:
Right? Get them the Fainting Couch, they are nearly crushing their pearls, they clutch them so vigorously.
But this time it’s just fine.
Our literal enemy owning Tiktok was no big deal, but relatively neutral middle eastern people investing in a movie studio is the devil’s bargain, for some reason.
You have no consistent principle or theory of the case. Just whatever your political opponents oppose is good and what they like (or even just allow) is bad.
Re:
No, you don’t. “Our Literal Enemy” is still one of the investors. Some assholes in the Middle East (who would also be our enemies if you and governments were consistent) don’t water that down.
We otherwise carry on heavy trade, and have done so forever, with Our Literal Enemy. Including IT products and services. But just pretend to freak out about a couple of things, then drop the freakout, then bring it back whenever convenient. If you think there is any real threat or consistency, you’re smoking crack.
Re:
Was it too hard to read through even the first paragraph? I’m asking because you seem to base your entire life on headlines which makes anything you say quite stupid.