Who Owns the News: A Complete Map of US Media Ownership, Before and After the Oligarchs

The Big Picture: From 50 Owners to 5

  <p>In 1983, 50 companies controlled 90% of American media. By 2012, that number was six. Today it's five: Comcast, Walt Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Skydance, and Amazon.<sup><a href="#s1">[1]</a></sup> If the pending Paramount-WBD merger closes, it will be four.</p>

  <p>But the raw corporate count understates what's happening. A FAIR analysis of Press Gazette traffic data from December 2024 to November 2025 found that 55.9% of all US news site visits — 25.5 billion out of 45.6 billion — went to outlets controlled by just seven families or corporate entities.<sup><a href="#s2">[2]</a></sup> The question isn't just who owns these outlets. It's what happened to them after they were bought.</p>

  <p>What follows is a property-by-property breakdown: who owned it, who owns it now, what changed editorially, and what's still pending.</p>

  <h2>The Ellison Empire: CBS, Paramount, CNN, TikTok</h2>

  <h3>The Patriarch</h3>

  <p>Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, has a net worth of approximately $175 billion. His son David Ellison runs Skydance Media. Together, they are assembling what may become the largest media portfolio in American history.<sup><a href="#s3">[3]</a></sup></p>

  <h3>CBS and Paramount (Acquired August 2025)</h3>

  <table>
    <tr><th>Before</th><th>After</th></tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Owned by National Amusements (Redstone family). CBS News was considered center-left with a strong investigative tradition. <em>60 Minutes</em> had been broadcasting since 1968 with editorial independence as its defining feature.</td>
      <td>Paramount Skydance (Ellison-controlled) completed the merger in August 2025. The FCC approved it after CBS agreed to pay $16 million to settle Trump's lawsuit over editing of a Kamala Harris <em>60 Minutes</em> interview.<sup><a href="#s4">[4]</a></sup></td>
    </tr>
  </table>

  <p><strong>Key editorial changes since acquisition:</strong></p>
  <ul>
    <li><em>60 Minutes</em> executive producer Bill Owens resigned in April 2025, citing "loss of independence from corporate." Correspondent Scott Pelley publicly warned that Paramount's interference had compromised the show's integrity.<sup><a href="#s5">[5]</a></sup></li>
    <li>CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon departed, writing that "it's become clear that the company and I do not agree on a path forward."<sup><a href="#s5">[5]</a></sup></li>
    <li>Bari Weiss, founder of the right-leaning digital outlet <em>The Free Press</em>, was installed as editor-in-chief of CBS News in October 2025 after selling her outlet to Paramount Skydance.<sup><a href="#s6">[6]</a></sup></li>
    <li>Kenneth Weinstein, former Hudson Institute president and pro-Trump ideologue with no newsroom background, was installed as CBS's "ombudsman."<sup><a href="#s5">[5]</a></sup></li>
    <li>In December 2025, Weiss pulled a <em>60 Minutes</em> segment on CECOT detention conditions less than 36 hours before air, saying it "did not advance the ball" without an on-the-record Trump administration comment.<sup><a href="#s7">[7]</a></sup></li>
    <li>In November 2025, CBS complied with Trump's on-camera demand not to air an exchange about his pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, deleting segments where Trump boasted about forcing <em>60 Minutes</em> to pay him millions.<sup><a href="#s5">[5]</a></sup></li>
    <li>In May 2026, reports emerged that Weiss allowed Netanyahu's office to choose the interviewer for a <em>60 Minutes</em> sit-down, with his team picking Major Garrett over Lesley Stahl.<sup><a href="#s8">[8]</a></sup></li>
  </ul>

  <p><strong>Lean before:</strong> Center-left, strong investigative tradition.<br>
  <strong>Lean after:</strong> Demonstrable rightward editorial shift with documented government interference in editorial decisions.</p>

  <h3>Warner Bros. Discovery / CNN (Pending — $110 Billion Merger)</h3>

  <p>In February 2026, Paramount Skydance won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery at roughly $31/share, totaling approximately $110 billion. WBD shareholders approved the deal in April 2026.<sup><a href="#s9">[9]</a></sup> If completed, the combined entity would give the Ellisons control of CBS, <em>60 Minutes</em>, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, HGTV, Discovery, CNN, HBO, TNT, and TBS.</p>

  <p><strong>What's already been reported about CNN's future:</strong></p>
  <ul>
    <li>The Wall Street Journal reported that Larry Ellison told White House officials Paramount would "implement the CBS playbook" at CNN and remove anchors and commentators that Trump doesn't like.<sup><a href="#s10">[10]</a></sup></li>
    <li>David Ellison publicly stated CNN will "maintain its editorial independence."<sup><a href="#s11">[11]</a></sup></li>
    <li>Democratic lawmakers Raskin and Pallone opened a Congressional investigation into whether Ellison promised editorial changes to win Trump administration approval of the merger.<sup><a href="#s12">[12]</a></sup></li>
  </ul>

  <p><strong>CNN's lean before (under Zaslav/WBD):</strong> Already shifted from left-of-center toward center under CEO Chris Licht (2022–2023) and subsequent leadership. Jim Acosta left in January 2025 after being offered a midnight time slot. CNN laid off ~200 employees (6% of global workforce).<br>
  <strong>CNN's lean after (projected):</strong> Unknown, but documented reports suggest significant editorial changes are planned.</p>

  <h3>TikTok US Operations (Closed January 2026)</h3>

  <p>Oracle leads a consortium that owns 45% of TikTok's US operations, with Oracle holding 15%, Silver Lake and MGX (Abu Dhabi's state investment fund) holding the remainder. ByteDance retains 19.9%.<sup><a href="#s13">[13]</a></sup> TikTok is used by approximately 4 in 10 US adults, making it a massive news distribution platform even though it's not a newsroom.</p>

  <p><strong>Lean before:</strong> Algorithm-driven, no fixed editorial position. The Trump administration banned it, alleging Chinese government influence.<br>
  <strong>Lean after:</strong> Now controlled by a consortium led by a major Trump donor. No editorial changes documented yet, but the algorithm determines what 170 million Americans see.</p>

  <h3>The Ellison Portfolio Summary</h3>

  <p>If the WBD merger closes, the Ellison family will control: CBS, <em>60 Minutes</em>, CBS News, CNN, HBO, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, Discovery, HGTV, TLC, TNT, TBS, and hold a controlling stake in TikTok's US operations. No individual or family in American history has controlled this much of the media landscape.<sup><a href="#s3">[3]</a></sup></p>

  <h2>Elon Musk and X (Twitter)</h2>

  <table>
    <tr><th>Before (Pre-October 2022)</th><th>After</th></tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Publicly traded company. Moderated content under a Trust and Safety Council. Banned Trump after January 6. Described as "the global town square" with a slight left-of-center user base among journalists and political commentators.</td>
      <td>Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, took it private, and renamed it X.</td>
    </tr>
  </table>

  <p><strong>Documented changes:</strong></p>
  <ul>
    <li>Fired approximately 75% of staff, including the entire content moderation and Trust and Safety teams.<sup><a href="#s14">[14]</a></sup></li>
    <li>Reinstated Trump and dozens of previously banned accounts including Neo-Nazis. Disbanded the Trust and Safety Council.<sup><a href="#s14">[14]</a></sup></li>
    <li>Eliminated rules banning hate speech and disinformation. The N-word saw a 500% increase in usage in the 12 hours after the acquisition.<sup><a href="#s15">[15]</a></sup></li>
    <li>King's College London research found that regular X users moved measurably to the right on racial issues and perceptions of economic fairness relative to non-users.<sup><a href="#s16">[16]</a></sup></li>
    <li>NPR described the platform as having been "transformed into an echo chamber amplifying right-leaning causes and in particular Donald Trump's electoral campaign."<sup><a href="#s14">[14]</a></sup></li>
    <li>Musk himself became one of Trump's most visible surrogates, running America PAC and receiving a role heading DOGE in the Trump administration.</li>
  </ul>

  <p><strong>Lean before:</strong> Center-left moderated platform.<br>
  <strong>Lean after:</strong> Right-wing megaphone with algorithmically amplified conservative content and the owner serving as a government official in the Trump administration.</p>

  <h2>Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post</h2>

  <table>
    <tr><th>Before (Pre-2013)</th><th>After (2013–Present)</th></tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Owned by the Graham family since 1933. Center-left editorial page. Strong investigative tradition (Watergate). Endorsed Democratic presidential candidates consistently.</td>
      <td>Bezos purchased the Post in 2013 for $250 million. For the first decade, he largely maintained editorial independence and invested heavily in digital expansion.</td>
    </tr>
  </table>

  <p><strong>The break came in 2024–2026:</strong></p>
  <ul>
    <li><strong>October 2024:</strong> Bezos personally blocked the editorial board from endorsing Kamala Harris, breaking decades of precedent. Three of ten editorial board members resigned. Robert Kagan and Jennifer Rubin left. Over 250,000 subscribers canceled — approximately 10% of digital subscriptions.<sup><a href="#s17">[17]</a></sup></li>
    <li><strong>February 2025:</strong> Bezos announced the opinion section would publish columns only "in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets." Opinions editor David Shipley resigned. Associate Editor David Maraniss said he would "never write for it again as long as Bezos owns it."<sup><a href="#s18">[18]</a></sup></li>
    <li><strong>January 2025:</strong> ~100 staffers laid off.<sup><a href="#s19">[19]</a></sup></li>
    <li><strong>February 2026:</strong> Bezos approved layoffs cutting one-third of all employees — 350 of 800 reporters (44%). Metro desk gutted, Sports section shut down, Books section closed, daily podcast canceled. An additional 60,000+ subscribers canceled.<sup><a href="#s19">[19]</a></sup></li>
    <li>Daily print circulation fell from 250,000 in 2020 to 97,000 in 2025. The paper lost $177 million over two years.<sup><a href="#s19">[19]</a></sup></li>
  </ul>

  <p><strong>Context:</strong> Bezos has significant business interests before the federal government (Amazon's $10B+ JEDI/cloud contracts, Blue Origin's NASA contracts, Amazon's antitrust exposure). The editorial changes coincided with Trump's return to office.</p>

  <p><strong>Lean before:</strong> Center-left, aggressive investigative reporting including "Democracy Dies in Darkness" motto adopted in 2017.<br>
  <strong>Lean after:</strong> Opinion section explicitly reoriented toward libertarian framing ("personal liberties and free markets"). News side not yet documented as compromised, though severely diminished by staff cuts.</p>

  <h2>Patrick Soon-Shiong and the LA Times</h2>

  <table>
    <tr><th>Before (Pre-2018)</th><th>After (2018–Present)</th></tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Owned by Tribune Publishing. Center-left editorial board. Endorsed Democratic candidates in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020.</td>
      <td>Billionaire biotech entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong purchased the LA Times in 2018 for $500 million.</td>
    </tr>
  </table>

  <p><strong>Key changes:</strong></p>
  <ul>
    <li><strong>October 2024:</strong> Soon-Shiong forbade the editorial board from endorsing in the presidential race. Editorials editor Mariel Garza resigned in protest.<sup><a href="#s20">[20]</a></sup></li>
    <li>Top editor Kevin Merida departed, along with several high-ranking editorial leaders. Painful layoffs followed.</li>
    <li>Soon-Shiong announced plans to "balance" the editorial board by hiring conservative voices, including CNN conservative commentator Scott Jennings.<sup><a href="#s20">[20]</a></sup></li>
    <li>When asked about the endorsement block, Soon-Shiong said the opinion pages were "so one-sided" and he wanted to "make sure that everybody had a chance to voice their own opinion."</li>
    <li>Veteran staffers described morale as "never lower," with some "wondering whether the newspaper will be disfigured beyond recognition."<sup><a href="#s20">[20]</a></sup></li>
  </ul>

  <p><strong>Lean before:</strong> Center-left editorial board, consistently endorsed Democrats.<br>
  <strong>Lean after:</strong> Endorsement tradition broken, conservative voices added to editorial board, significant staff departures. Shifting toward center-right editorial page.</p>

  <h2>Mark Zuckerberg and Meta</h2>

  <p>Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp) is not a traditional news outlet, but Pew Research has found that a majority of Americans get news from social media, with Facebook being the largest single source.<sup><a href="#s21">[21]</a></sup></p>

  <table>
    <tr><th>Before (Pre-January 2025)</th><th>After (January 2025–Present)</th></tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Third-party fact-checking program operational since 2016. Content moderation teams enforced rules against hate speech and disinformation. Political content was algorithmically downranked starting in 2021.</td>
      <td>Major policy reversal announced January 7, 2025 — two weeks before Trump's inauguration.</td>
    </tr>
  </table>

  <p><strong>Changes announced:</strong></p>
  <ul>
    <li>Eliminated third-party fact-checking program entirely, replacing it with a "Community Notes" model copied from Musk's X.<sup><a href="#s21">[21]</a></sup></li>
    <li>Named UFC CEO Dana White, a longtime Trump supporter, to Meta's board of directors.<sup><a href="#s21">[21]</a></sup></li>
    <li>Removed restrictions on political content including immigration and gender topics.</li>
    <li>Ended DEI programs.</li>
    <li>Donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund. Zuckerberg traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump.</li>
    <li>Zuckerberg said fact-checkers were "too politically biased" and "destroyed more trust than they've created."<sup><a href="#s21">[21]</a></sup></li>
  </ul>

  <p><strong>Lean before:</strong> Algorithmically neutral with active fact-checking; accused by both sides of bias (conservatives said it censored them, liberals said it amplified misinformation).<br>
  <strong>Lean after:</strong> Removed guardrails against misinformation, appointed Trump ally to board, actively courted the Trump administration. Not editorially "right-wing" but removed the systems that filtered right-wing misinformation.</p>

  <h2>The Murdoch Empire: Fox, WSJ, NY Post</h2>

  <p>Unlike the other entries on this list, Murdoch's empire wasn't recently acquired and didn't recently change direction. It was built as a conservative media operation from the ground up.</p>

  <h3>Current Holdings</h3>

  <table>
    <tr><th>Property</th><th>Lean</th><th>Notes</th></tr>
    <tr><td>Fox News</td><td>Right / Pro-Trump</td><td>Most-watched cable news network. Paid $787.5 million to settle Dominion defamation suit in 2023. Ratings crushing competition since 2024 election.<sup><a href="#s22">[22]</a></sup></td></tr>
    <tr><td>Wall Street Journal</td><td>Right-of-center editorial / Center news</td><td>News side maintains independence from editorial page. WSJ news broke the Larry Ellison CNN story.</td></tr>
    <tr><td>New York Post</td><td>Right / Tabloid conservative</td><td>Consistently pro-Trump editorial line.</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Fox Business</td><td>Right / Pro-business</td><td>Financial news with conservative framing.</td></tr>
    <tr><td>HarperCollins</td><td>Varied</td><td>Major book publisher, publishes across political spectrum.</td></tr>
  </table>

  <h3>Succession</h3>

  <p>In September 2025, the Murdoch family reached a succession deal giving Lachlan Murdoch sole voting control of the family's media holdings through 2050. The deal ensures "no change in direction at Fox News."<sup><a href="#s22">[22]</a></sup></p>

  <p><strong>Lean: Always right.</strong> The Murdoch properties are the baseline against which the other acquisitions are measured. What's new isn't that Fox is conservative — it's that formerly independent or left-leaning outlets are converging toward the same editorial posture.</p>

  <h2>Comcast, NBC, and the MSNBC Spinoff</h2>

  <h3>NBC News (Retained by Comcast)</h3>

  <p>NBC News, including the Today show, remains under Comcast ownership. Brian Roberts, Comcast's billionaire CEO and controlling shareholder, controls the company through dual-class shares.</p>

  <p><strong>Lean:</strong> Center to center-left on news coverage. However, FAIR characterized Comcast as demonstrating "swift and severe capitulation" to Trump, including demoting progressive anchors.<sup><a href="#s2">[2]</a></sup></p>

  <h3>MSNBC / MS Now (Spun Off January 2026)</h3>

  <p>In November 2024, Comcast announced it would spin off its cable networks — MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, E!, SYFY — into a new publicly traded company called Versant, which completed in January 2026.<sup><a href="#s23">[23]</a></sup></p>

  <p><strong>Changes during the transition:</strong></p>
  <ul>
    <li>MSNBC was renamed MS Now and lost the NBC branding.<sup><a href="#s23">[23]</a></sup></li>
    <li>Joy Reid was fired and her show <em>The ReidOut</em> was canceled in February 2025. Alex Wagner's show was also canceled.<sup><a href="#s24">[24]</a></sup></li>
    <li>Rachel Maddow called Reid's removal "indefensible" and condemned the removal of non-white hosts.<sup><a href="#s24">[24]</a></sup></li>
    <li>Jen Psaki was moved to the 9 PM primetime slot Tuesday through Friday.<sup><a href="#s24">[24]</a></sup></li>
    <li>The separation from NBC News cut MSNBC off from shared correspondents and reportage.</li>
  </ul>

  <p><strong>Lean before:</strong> Openly progressive, the left's answer to Fox News.<br>
  <strong>Lean after:</strong> Still left-leaning but visibly trimming its most progressive voices and separated from the resources of NBC News. Future editorial direction under Versant is uncertain.</p>

  <h2>Disney, ABC, and the FCC Pressure Campaign</h2>

  <p>Disney, under CEO Bob Iger, has not sold ABC. But the editorial changes at ABC are driven not by an acquisition but by an unprecedented government pressure campaign using the FCC as a weapon.<sup><a href="#s25">[25]</a></sup></p>

  <p><strong>The timeline:</strong></p>
  <ul>
    <li><strong>December 2024:</strong> ABC agreed to pay $15 million to Trump's presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over George Stephanopoulos's on-air comments about the E. Jean Carroll case.<sup><a href="#s26">[26]</a></sup></li>
    <li><strong>March 2025:</strong> FCC opened an investigation into Disney's DEI programs.</li>
    <li><strong>August 2025:</strong> Trump called for the FCC to revoke ABC's broadcast licenses, calling the network an "arm of the Democratic Party." FCC Chairman Brendan Carr — a Trump appointee and Project 2025 contributor — supported the call.<sup><a href="#s25">[25]</a></sup></li>
    <li><strong>2025:</strong> After Jimmy Kimmel made jokes about Trump on air, FCC Chairman Carr ordered an early review of Disney's eight ABC station licenses — licenses not due for renewal until October 2028.<sup><a href="#s25">[25]</a></sup></li>
    <li><strong>2025:</strong> Nexstar (38 ABC affiliates) and Sinclair both refused to air <em>Jimmy Kimmel Live!</em> on their ABC-affiliated stations.<sup><a href="#s27">[27]</a></sup></li>
    <li><strong>May 2026:</strong> FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez (the lone Democrat) accused the Trump administration of a "sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control" targeting Disney. Disney filed a legal challenge claiming the FCC violated its First Amendment rights.<sup><a href="#s25">[25]</a></sup></li>
  </ul>

  <p><strong>Key legal reality:</strong> The FCC does not license TV networks — it licenses individual broadcast stations on eight-year cycles. Trump's threats to "revoke ABC's license" cannot legally be carried out as stated.<sup><a href="#s25">[25]</a></sup> But the regulatory harassment (early license reviews, DEI investigations, equal-time complaints) creates pressure without requiring legal authority to follow through.</p>

  <p><strong>Lean before:</strong> Center-left mainstream network.<br>
  <strong>Lean after:</strong> Still center-left, but under active government pressure. Disney is currently the only major media company actively fighting back in court rather than capitulating. FCC Commissioner Gomez praised Disney for "choosing courage over capitulation."<sup><a href="#s25">[25]</a></sup></p>

  <h2>Local TV: Nexstar, Sinclair, and the 80% Problem</h2>

  <p>While national media gets the attention, local TV news is where most Americans still get their news. And local TV is undergoing its own consolidation into conservative-leaning conglomerates.</p>

  <h3>The Big Three Local TV Owners</h3>

  <table>
    <tr><th>Company</th><th>Stations</th><th>Reach</th><th>Political Lean</th></tr>
    <tr><td>Nexstar Media Group</td><td>~200 (after Tegna merger)</td><td>80% of US households</td><td>Conservative-leaning ownership, less overtly partisan content than Sinclair<sup><a href="#s27">[27]</a></sup></td></tr>
    <tr><td>Sinclair Broadcast Group</td><td>~185</td><td>40% of US households</td><td>Overtly conservative. Required anchors to read identical right-wing scripts in 2018. Refused to air Kimmel. "Must-run" conservative segments.<sup><a href="#s27">[27]</a></sup></td></tr>
    <tr><td>Gray Television</td><td>~100</td><td>~24% of US households</td><td>Less documented political lean, but consolidation-driven</td></tr>
  </table>

  <p>Combined, these three companies control about 40% of all local TV news stations in the US. Their stations are affiliated with ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC — meaning they carry the national network programming but control local news, which is often the most-watched news programming in a given market.<sup><a href="#s1">[1]</a></sup></p>

  <h3>The Tegna-Nexstar Merger (March 2026)</h3>

  <p>The FCC and DOJ approved Nexstar's acquisition of Tegna despite objections from eight state attorneys general who sued to block it on antitrust grounds. Trump publicly supported the merger, saying it would "help knock out the Fake News." The FCC waived ownership rules to allow the deal — an action CPJ said was made "without an open process, no full FCC vote, and in blatant violation of current restrictions regarding media reach."<sup><a href="#s1">[1]</a></sup></p>

  <p><strong>Lean before:</strong> Local TV was historically nonpartisan and locally focused.<br>
  <strong>Lean after:</strong> Increasingly consolidated under owners with documented conservative editorial practices, with the FCC actively facilitating further consolidation.</p>

  <h2>Digital Aggregators: Yahoo, MSN, and the Invisible Gatekeepers</h2>

  <h3>Yahoo News (Apollo Global Management)</h3>

  <p>Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm led by CEO Marc Rowan, acquired Yahoo in 2021. Yahoo News aggregates content from other sources and draws approximately 2.7 billion visits annually.<sup><a href="#s2">[2]</a></sup> Rowan has donated millions to Republican candidates. Yahoo doesn't produce much original journalism — it aggregates and algorithmically selects what millions see.</p>

  <h3>MSN (Microsoft)</h3>

  <p>Microsoft's MSN news aggregator draws approximately 2.1 billion visits annually.<sup><a href="#s2">[2]</a></sup> CEO Satya Nadella maintains what FAIR described as a "friendly" relationship with Trump. Like Yahoo, MSN's influence is in algorithmic curation rather than original reporting.</p>

  <p><strong>Key point:</strong> These platforms don't write the news, but they choose which news billions of people see. Their algorithms are opaque, their editorial criteria are undisclosed, and their owners have political preferences and business interests before the federal government.</p>

  <h2>The Holdouts: Who Remains Independent</h2>

  <h3>The New York Times (Sulzberger Family)</h3>

  <p>The Ochs-Sulzberger family has controlled the Times since 1896 through a dual-class share structure. SEC filings state the family trust's "primary objective" is that the Times continues "as an independent newspaper, entirely fearless, free of ulterior influence and unselfishly devoted to the public welfare." The Times draws 5.54 billion visits annually — more than any other single news property.<sup><a href="#s2">[2]</a></sup></p>

  <p>The Times endorses candidates (it has endorsed the Democrat in every presidential election since 1960) but maintains a strict "church and state" separation between its editorial and news operations. Publisher A.G. Sulzberger has stated the newspaper "will never reflect our personal politics." The family has made political donations to candidates in both parties.</p>

  <p><strong>Status:</strong> Independent. Not under acquisition pressure. Not changing editorial direction under political pressure. The only entity in the top seven that hasn't made a demonstrable concession to the Trump administration.</p>

  <h3>NPR / PBS (Public Broadcasting)</h3>

  <p>Public broadcasting remains editorially independent but faces existential funding threats. The Trump administration has pushed to defund both NPR and PBS. CPJ has documented these efforts as part of the broader media consolidation pattern.<sup><a href="#s1">[1]</a></sup></p>

  <h3>AP and Reuters</h3>

  <p>Both wire services remain independent. AP is a nonprofit cooperative owned by its member newspapers. Reuters is owned by Thomson Reuters (Canadian). Neither has changed editorial direction.</p>

  <h3>IAC / Barry Diller (People, Daily Beast)</h3>

  <p>IAC, controlled by billionaire Barry Diller, draws 1.9 billion visits through People, Daily Beast, and other properties.<sup><a href="#s2">[2]</a></sup> FAIR noted that Diller "stands out as a Trump critic among the Top 7." He is the only media billionaire in the top tier who has not made documented concessions to the Trump administration.</p>

  <h2>Master Ownership Table</h2>

  <table>
    <tr>
      <th>Owner</th>
      <th>Properties</th>
      <th>Status</th>
      <th>Lean Before</th>
      <th>Lean After</th>
      <th>Evidence of Shift</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Ellison family</strong></td>
      <td>CBS, <em>60 Minutes</em>, Paramount; CNN, HBO (pending); TikTok US (15%)</td>
      <td>CBS owned; WBD pending; TikTok closed</td>
      <td>Center-left (CBS), Center (CNN)</td>
      <td>Right-shifting</td>
      <td>Bari Weiss installed; segments pulled; Trump given editorial veto; ombudsman from Hudson Institute</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Elon Musk</strong></td>
      <td>X (Twitter)</td>
      <td>Owned since Oct 2022</td>
      <td>Center-left platform</td>
      <td>Right-wing megaphone</td>
      <td>75% staff fired; hate speech rules removed; algorithm amplifies right-wing content; owner is DOGE head</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Jeff Bezos</strong></td>
      <td>Washington Post</td>
      <td>Owned since 2013</td>
      <td>Center-left</td>
      <td>Libertarian editorial reorientation; gutted newsroom</td>
      <td>Endorsement blocked; 44% of reporters laid off; opinion page reoriented to "free markets"; 310,000+ subscribers canceled</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Patrick Soon-Shiong</strong></td>
      <td>LA Times</td>
      <td>Owned since 2018</td>
      <td>Center-left</td>
      <td>Shifting center-right</td>
      <td>Endorsement blocked; conservative voices added to editorial board; top editors departed</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Mark Zuckerberg</strong></td>
      <td>Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp)</td>
      <td>Founded/controlled</td>
      <td>Platform with fact-checking</td>
      <td>Platform without fact-checking</td>
      <td>Fact-checkers eliminated; Trump ally Dana White added to board; $1M inauguration donation; DEI programs ended</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Murdoch family</strong></td>
      <td>Fox News, WSJ, NY Post, Fox Business, HarperCollins</td>
      <td>Owned; Lachlan controls through 2050</td>
      <td>Right</td>
      <td>Right</td>
      <td>No change — was always the conservative anchor. $787.5M Dominion settlement.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Comcast (Roberts)</strong></td>
      <td>NBC News, Today; spun off MSNBC/CNBC to Versant</td>
      <td>NBC retained; MSNBC spun off Jan 2026</td>
      <td>Center (NBC), Progressive (MSNBC)</td>
      <td>Center (NBC), Trimmed progressive (MS Now)</td>
      <td>Joy Reid fired; Alex Wagner canceled; MSNBC separated from NBC News resources</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Disney (Iger)</strong></td>
      <td>ABC, FiveThirtyEight (shut down), ESPN</td>
      <td>Owned; under FCC pressure</td>
      <td>Center-left</td>
      <td>Center-left (resisting)</td>
      <td>$15M Trump settlement; FCC investigations; early license review; but actively fighting back in court</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Apollo (Rowan)</strong></td>
      <td>Yahoo News</td>
      <td>Owned since 2021</td>
      <td>Aggregator, no strong lean</td>
      <td>Aggregator; Republican-donor ownership</td>
      <td>No documented editorial interference. Algorithmic curation is opaque.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Nexstar</strong></td>
      <td>~200 local TV stations</td>
      <td>Expanding (Tegna acquired 2026)</td>
      <td>Local, nonpartisan</td>
      <td>Conservative-leaning ownership</td>
      <td>Blocked Kimmel; conservative political donations; FCC waived rules for Tegna merger</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Sinclair</strong></td>
      <td>~185 local TV stations</td>
      <td>Owned</td>
      <td>Local, nonpartisan (historically)</td>
      <td>Overtly conservative</td>
      <td>Required anchors to read identical scripts; "must-run" conservative segments; refused to air Kimmel</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Sulzberger family</strong></td>
      <td>New York Times</td>
      <td>Family-controlled since 1896</td>
      <td>Center-left</td>
      <td>Center-left (unchanged)</td>
      <td>No documented shift. Only top-7 outlet not making concessions to Trump administration.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Diller (IAC)</strong></td>
      <td>People, Daily Beast</td>
      <td>Owned</td>
      <td>Center to center-left</td>
      <td>Center to center-left</td>
      <td>No documented shift. Only billionaire in top-7 who is a public Trump critic.</td>
    </tr>
  </table>

  <h2>What This Means</h2>

  <h3>The Pattern</h3>

  <p>The editorial direction of US media has shifted measurably rightward since 2022 — not because journalism itself changed, but because the people who own the journalism changed, or changed their behavior under political pressure. The pattern is consistent across multiple outlets:</p>

  <ol>
    <li><strong>Acquisition or pressure event</strong> (purchase, lawsuit, FCC threat)</li>
    <li><strong>Editorial leadership replaced</strong> (editors resign or are fired)</li>
    <li><strong>Investigative journalism throttled</strong> (segments pulled, staff cut, stories killed)</li>
    <li><strong>Conservative editorial voices installed</strong> (Bari Weiss at CBS, Scott Jennings at LA Times, "free markets" framing at WaPo)</li>
    <li><strong>Government given informal editorial veto</strong> (Trump dictating what airs on 60 Minutes, Netanyahu choosing his interviewer)</li>
  </ol>

  <h3>Who's Resisting</h3>

  <p>Of all the outlets analyzed, only three entities are clearly not participating in the rightward shift:</p>
  <ul>
    <li><strong>The New York Times</strong> — family trust structure insulates it from acquisition pressure</li>
    <li><strong>Disney/ABC</strong> — actively fighting the FCC in court (the only major company doing so)</li>
    <li><strong>AP and Reuters</strong> — nonprofit cooperative and Canadian ownership, respectively</li>
  </ul>

  <h3>What's Still Pending</h3>

  <p>The most consequential deal hasn't closed yet. If the Paramount-WBD merger is completed, the Ellison family will control CBS, CNN, HBO, and a controlling stake in TikTok's US operations — giving one family influence over the news consumption of hundreds of millions of Americans. Congressional investigations are underway, but no regulatory action has been taken to block or condition the deal.</p>

  <p>CPJ has compared the current US media consolidation pattern to democratic backsliding previously documented in Hungary, India, Malaysia, and Venezuela.<sup><a href="#s1">[1]</a></sup> Whether the US follows that trajectory depends on whether the remaining independent outlets can survive, whether courts uphold First Amendment protections against FCC overreach, and whether the public cares enough to pay for independent journalism with their subscriptions rather than getting their news for free from platforms controlled by the billionaires documented in this briefing.</p>