# MAGA Capture of Mainstream Television News Begins **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 8, 2025, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864 "2025-09-08T20:33:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/1 "2025-09-08T20:33:32Z")
> **[Paramount Taps Kenneth Weinstein, Former Trump Adviser, as CBS News Ombudsman](https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/kenneth-weinstein-ombudsman-cbs-news-paramount-1236511847/)** > > Paramount has assigned Kenneth Weinstein to serve as ombudsman of CBS News > [@](#): > > Paramount Global named former Hudson Institute CEO Kenneth Weinstein to serve as ombudsman of [CBS News](https://variety.com/t/cbs-news/), assigning someone who led a conservative think tank and largely worked outside the traditional world of journalism to monitor the news unit’s reporting and scrutinize it against claims of bias. . . . > > the move appears to presage the arrival of Bari Weiss, the leader of the upstart digital site The Free Press, who is in talks to sell her operations to Paramount. Weiss believes she will win a role as part of the acquisition that will give her power to assign stories and manage CBS programs, according to people familiar with discussions, though the actual position she might gain with the company remains unclear. I do not think this is sufficient to turn CBS News into the official administration mouthpiece DJT would like. But it’s a big step. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/2 "2025-09-08T20:46:29Z")
Just one more reason not to watch network TV other than for local news/weather. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/3 "2025-09-09T16:45:43Z")
You say ombudsman, I say [zampolit](https://www.google.com/search?q=zampolit&rlz=1C1GCEB_enUS1125US1125&oq=zampolit&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyCQgAEEUYORiABDIHCAEQABiABDIGCAIQABgeMgYIAxAAGB4yBggEEAAYHjIGCAUQABgeMgYIBhAAGB4yCAgHEAAYBRgeMgYICBAAGB4yBggJEAAYHtIBCTQwNzRqMGoxNagCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8), let’s call the whole thing off! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/4 "2025-09-09T22:20:00Z")
The CBS Evening News has been consistently hard on Trump. If Weinstein turns that around, we’re living in a more successful dictatorship than we’ve seen even in the past eight months. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/5 "2025-09-10T08:35:11Z")
Why would they do this? ---
**Author:** ![bodangus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c37758/32.png) [@bodangus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bodangus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/6 "2025-09-10T10:22:59Z")
Why? Because the propaganda machine has to be assembled first before it can be switched on and then be allowed to take over. AI can certainly help with that goal. ---
**Author:** ![bodangus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c37758/32.png) [@bodangus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bodangus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/7 "2025-09-10T10:31:56Z")
This future will certainly speed things up too. > **[US students’ reading and math scores at historic lows: ‘Devastating trend’](https://www.ksro.com/2025/09/09/us-students-reading-and-math-scores-at-historic-lows-devastating-trend/)** > > Sengchoy/STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — High school students, especially 12th graders, are reading and learning math and science at historic lows, according to a new report from the National Assessment of Education Progress. The new report, ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/8 "2025-09-10T11:39:56Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > Why would they do this? To prevent adverse government decisions. There are two risks I see should they decline to gradually allow their news operations to be MAGAized. One, that Trump has repeatedly mentioned, concerns licensing. The networks need periodic local licence renewals, including ones for key markets including NYC, LA, and Chicago. Network-owned stations have to show they are operating in the public interest as judged by the increasingly Trumpy Federal Communications Commission. The other choke point is the need for federal approval of mergers and acquisitions. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/9 "2025-09-10T11:57:06Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > The other choke point is the need for federal approval of mergers and acquisitions. This was likely the cause for this particular decision and their settlement on the ridiculous 60 Minutes lawsuit – they had a merger pending. They agreed to this and the settlement, and the merger got approved. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/10 "2025-09-10T12:19:18Z")
> [@bodangus](#): > > This future will certainly speed things up too. Now that I think of it, why hasn’t Trump stopped standardized testing and/or any kind of requirement for schools to report whatever metrics area used to whatever federal department ranks states? Does that make sense? In other words, between Trump trying to sabotage education, reports regularly showing that red states fall further behind when it comes to education (which I don’t think is unique to the Trump admin) as well as lots of other things, one of which being the public’s slowly growing awareness that less educated population is both how the right increases their numbers AND makes it easier for them to get away with what they’re doing…with all that, you’d think Trump would do what he can to suppress those numbers. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/11 "2025-09-11T12:13:04Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > To prevent adverse government decisions. > > There are two risks I see should they decline to gradually allow their news operations to be MAGAized. Thanks, that makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2025, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/12 "2025-09-12T19:10:46Z")
The news today is that Skydance, which bought Paramount, wants to buy Time Warner Discovery as well. TWD owns CNN, so the same people who are trying to manipulate CBS will try to do so for CNN. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2025, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/13 "2025-09-13T01:18:39Z")
The last post is important. Aside from Skydance arguably being a Trumpy company, the fewer news gathering media organizations there are, the easier it will be for the autocrat to gain control over them all. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2025, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/14 "2025-09-13T01:22:37Z")
Although I should correct myself; it’s Warner Bros Discovery that Skydance wants to buy and merge with Paramount, not Time Warner Discovery. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/15 "2025-09-13T01:29:13Z")
I don’t want to turn this into the zillionth Charlie Kirk thread, but this firing is quite relevant to this thread: > **[MSNBC fires analyst Matthew Dowd over Charlie Kirk shooting remarks](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/11/msnbc-fires-matthew-dowd-charlie-kirk-shooting)** > > Dowd said the slain activist’s words may have fueled the violence that claimed his life, sparking backlash While I would have a big problem with a journalist endorsing the assassination, I fail to see that in Dowd’s comments. The firing standard applied here doesn’t exclude all anti-MAGA TV journalists, but it means you cannot be at all impulsive. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2025, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/16 "2025-09-16T10:52:45Z")
The delicious irony is that Kirk’s supporters think he was a bastion of free speech. He wasn’t, of course. After that firing, a Fox News announcer said that homeless people should be euthanized. Fox, of course, has already been MAGAified, so he just had to apologize. ---
**Author:** ![Zoobi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/13edae/32.png) [@Zoobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoobi)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/17 "2025-10-03T14:00:22Z")
> **[Paramount Officially Acquiring The Free Press and Making Bari Weiss CBS News...](https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/paramount-officially-acquiring-the-free-press-and-making-bari-weiss-cbs-news-editor-in-chief-report/)** > > Paramount Skydance will be officially acquiring The Free Press and hiring its founder Bari Weiss as editor in chief of its CBS News division, with the deal to be announced this coming Monday, according to a report by Puck's Dylan Byers. Looks like it’s fait accompli for CBS News. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/18 "2025-10-03T14:16:27Z")
Sorry I’m late 😉 #6 on Laurence Britt’s “**[14 Characteristics of Fascism](https://secularhumanism.org/2003/03/fascism-anyone/)**.” > **A controlled mass media** > > Under some of the regimes, the mass media were under strict direct control and could be relied upon never to stray from the party line. Other regimes exercised more subtle power to ensure media orthodoxy. Methods included the control of licensing and access to resources, economic pressure, appeals to patriotism, and implied threats. The leaders of the mass media were often politically compatible with the power elite. The result was usually success in keeping the general public unaware of the regimes’ excesses. Britt wrote this paper in the Spring of 2003, when most of us had barely even heard of Donald Trump. This isn’t Monday Morning Quarterbacking. It’s based on his in-depth analysis of “the following regimes: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia.” ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/19 "2025-10-03T14:41:47Z")
I would imagine Miller et al are using Britt’s paper as an instruction manual. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2025, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864/20 "2025-10-06T13:39:23Z")
> **[Bari Weiss named editor-in-chief of CBS News as Paramount acquires The Free...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bari-weiss-editor-in-chief-cbs-news-paramount-the-free-press/)** > > Paramount, a Skydance Corporation, has announced the acquisition of The Free Press. Its co-founder and CEO, Bari Weiss, will join CBS News as editor-in-chief. Low confidence here, but I expect CBS News to go to having roughly as much clearly favorable-to-Trump content as critical. And I do not think this will be good enough for Donald Trump. Bari Weiss will either have to go full-MAGA or be a transitional figure, perhaps fired next year. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maga-capture-of-mainstream-television-news-begins/1022864.md?page=2)