Elon Musk Could Get Stake in CBS and CNN Under Paramount Merger

Paramount’s David Ellison is considering joining forces with Elon Musk.

Elon Musk may soon have a stake in two of the largest television news operations in the U.S., thanks to the Paramount merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

Semafor reports that Paramount Skydance executives are looking for sources of cash and are considering asking the tech oligarch and world’s richest man to join a team of equity investors in the company. Musk is one of multiple candidates that Paramount CEO David Ellison is considering, and if it happens, the Tesla CEO would own stakes in both CBS and CNN.

Musk already has a close relationship with Ellison’s father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison. In 2022, the elder Ellison invested $1 billion into Musk’s effort to take over Twitter (now X), and he also invested in Tesla in 2018, later serving on its board of directors.

Musk’s involvement in the merger would have alarming implications for the state of the free press, as his far-right views have become increasingly prevalent on his social media platform, X. The Ellisons’ ownership of CBS has led to a conservative turn at the network, with reactionary Bari Weiss being named editor in chief and gutting its signature news shows, CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes.

Similar fears are being raised about the Ellisons taking over CNN. Musk’s involvement will only heighten those fears, as he professes fascist and xenophobic views almost daily. Several states had sued to stop the Paramount and Warner Bros. merger but settled that lawsuit earlier this week, paving the way for it to go ahead. Now it seems there will soon be a new conservative media giant, flush with cash.

Trump Invites Putin to Attend G20 Summit at His Golf Club

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the invite has already been extended.

The Trump administration has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin—who is four years into his relentless invasion of Ukraine—to the December G20 summit at President Trump’s golf club in Miami. Putin has yet to accept the invitation.

“We’ve invited President Putin to the G20. We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president but also with other world leaders,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “We hope that’s an invitation he’ll accept. There’s an opportunity in December, if that happens.”

The summit—one of the most important global affairs meetings—is being held at National Doral Golf Club, the private golf course of the American president. Trump tried a similar move in 2020, but was met with widespread outrage before the summit was canceled anyway because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It seems like the bar for blatant presidential corruption has gotten much lower........

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