Jim Acosta Warns of ‘Media Domination’ by Billionaire Trump Friend Ellisons at Hearing on First Amendment

Journalist Jim Acosta warned of “media domination” by the “MAGA-friendly” billionaire Ellison family at a Friday hearing in Los Angeles that also featured Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA).

“Here is the breaking news: the news is broken,” began Acosta in his testimony about the Trump administration’s alleged attacks on the First Amendment. Specifically, Acosta spoke of the pending merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery that he believed would threaten the objectivity of CNN.

“We may not be able to put the pieces back together again if the Paramount Warner Bros. Discovery merger goes through and puts my former home, CNN, under the control of the Ellison family,” Acosta said. “You see, the president of the United States Donald Trump has cracked the code on how to hurt the press in America. You may recall Trump and his team seized my press pass during his first term. What is happening now goes way beyond that.”

Acosta described Trump’s actions as “an assault on America and the free press,” saying that the “most powerful man in the world” was taking the United States “down the road of Putin or China-style…state-controlled media in this country, owned by the oligarchs in service to Trump and MAGA, all in the name of special treatment for the wealthiest Americans” and “at the expense of everyone else.”

Acosta brought up a recent Trump Truth Social post in which the president bragged about destroying the country’s legacy media with a graphic touting which companies and reporters had been decimated since the beginning of his second term.

“Under the subheading ‘reforms,’ there are references to some of the latest troubling media moves made by one of the richest families in the world, the Ellisons, who are very close to Trump,” Acosta said. “One of the reforms listed reads, “Saved TikTok,” which Acosta called a “nod to the Ellisons taking control of that popular social media platform.”

Acosta continued:

There are references to the new ownership of CNN and a news bias ombudsman for CBS. The Ellisons, who have recently purchased Paramount, the parent company of CBS, are rapidly expanding their media empire by making what appears to be a successful bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN. That would put CNN together with CBS and TikTok under the control and influence of one family that is closely aligned with the White House.

The Trump administration, should it approve the Paramount-WBD merger, and it looks like they will, would be setting the table for a MAGA-friendly family to own an unprecedented amount of the news and information we consume in this country. That is not media consolidation, ladies and gentlemen; that is media domination.

Acosta added that there may soon be nothing to stop the Ellisons from “gobbling up” NBC, ABC, and other media outlets, which would pose a very real “danger to our democracy and the American dream.”

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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