They Control the News, the Shows—and Now the Algorithm
Fewer companies, fewer voices, and more control—from CBS to TikTok, the same power networks are reshaping news, culture, and the future of what you get to see.
THE MEDIA POWER GRAB: How Consolidation Is Reshaping What America Sees—and Believes
Most of the time, there’s a moment—right before something fundamentally changes—where everything still feels normal.
That’s where we are right now.
Because while we’ve been scrolling, streaming, and half-watching the news…
People with money, access, and agendas have been buying the entire system.
They have made it a point to do it quietly... But decisively and with precision.
Paramount is massive. Now Imagine It Bigger.
Let’s start with what Paramount Global already controls:
Broadcast & News
CBS
CBS News
CBS Sports
Local CBS Television Stations in select markets across the country
Cable Networks
MTV
VH1
BET
Comedy Central
Nickelodeon (Nick Jr., TeenNick, Nicktoons)
Paramount Network
TV Land
CMT
Smithsonian Channel
Streaming
Paramount+
Pluto TV
Showtime (recently integrated into Paramount+)
Film & Production
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Television Studios
CBS Studios
This isn’t just a company.
It’s a pipeline of culture, information, and influence—from children’s programming to primetime news.
For a ’90s kid like me, the cultural impact of shows like All That, Kenan & Kel, Drake & Josh, Ned’s Declassified, and iCarly isn’t just nostalgia—it’s proof of how deeply media shapes societal norms. And today, that same kind of influence is being consolidated under fewer and fewer corporations, controlled by a shrinking number of connected people... Now, just a handful of companies—and an even smaller group of decision-makers—control a dominant share of what Americans watch across cable, streaming, and social media.
Now ask the obvious question:
What happens when control of that magnitude shifts?
Well... The Shift Is Already Happening
You don’t need to speculate.
You can watch it— in real time.
CBS News has begun to change after its merger with Skydance last year:
More ‘both sides’ framing—even in situations where that balance doesn’t really exist
Softer treatment of conservative narratives
A shift that feels less like neutrality—and more like something intentional
This is how influence works now.
Not through censorship.
Through subtle editorial control.
The Real Power Move: Warner Bros. Discovery
Now scale that influence dramatically.
Because Paramount isn’t just consolidating—it’s pursuing Warner Bros. Discovery.
If that deal closes, the combined entity would control:
CBS + CNN (two of the most influential news brands in the world)
HBO (arguably the most prestigious storytelling platform in television)
Warner Bros. Studios
Discovery Channel
HGTV
Food Network
TLC
Cartoon Network / Adult Swim
TBS / TNT
That’s an unprecedented level of influence across:
News
Entertainment
Lifestyle
Kids content
Streaming infrastructure
And if CBS is already swinging hard to the right…
What do you think will happen to CNN?
Now, we got to talk about TikTok...
Now comes the part most people are underestimating. The power of the feed.
Because controlling media isn’t just about making content anymore.
It’s about controlling distribution.
TikTok—one of the most powerful content engines in the world—has now been restructured into a U.S.-controlled entity, following a deal that places its American operations under an investor group led by Larry Ellison, the father of David Ellison… who now controls Paramount following the Skydance merger—placing legacy media and a major distribution platform within the same family’s control.
TikTok’s original owner, ByteDance, remains involved at a reduced level.
But operational control—data oversight, governance, and platform direction—now sits with Larry Ellison’s group of American investors tied to the same financial ecosystem influencing traditional media.
That changes the equation.
Because now we’re looking at overlapping influence across:
What gets produced (the studios)
What gets aired (the networks)
And what gets amplified (TikTok’s algorithm)
That’s not just consolidation.
That’s narrative control. That’s control over deciding what people should care about and when! That’s a lot of power for a handful of people, especially from one family...
Public Media Is Being Weakened at the Same Time
And this is where the pattern becomes impossible to ignore.
Because while private media is being consolidated…
Public media is being decimated.
In July 2025, Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress passed and signed a rescissions bill that cut roughly $1.1 billion in federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—the entity that supports PBS and NPR. The move came alongside a broader legislative push, branded by Republicans as the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ aimed at reshaping federal spending and public institutions.
That funding supports more than 1,500 local stations, many of them serving rural and underserved communities.
And it didn’t stop there.
Earlier in 2025, the administration also directed federal agencies to eliminate funding for public broadcasters entirely, framing them as ‘politically biased’.
So, at the exact moment corporate media power is being consolidated into the hands of a select few billionaires close to the President…
public, non-corporate media is being weakened by his administration.
Out with old... in the new...
At the same time, another shift is happening:
Funding and visibility for PragerU, a digital-first ideological media operation, continues to grow
Younger audiences are being targeted directly through platforms like YouTube
One of my first episodes of Pragmotiv News highlighted how PragerU portrayed Frederick Douglass saying “Slavery was a compromise to achieve something great”.
Taken together, the strategy becomes clear:
Consolidate traditional media
Weaken public alternatives
Build new ideological pipelines
That’s not by mistake...
That’s a system designed to create bias, something they claim to be trying to combat.
The Blueprint: Project 2025
If this all feels coordinated, there’s a reason.
The Heritage Foundation—the conservative think tank behind Project 2025—has been explicit about its goals:
Reshape federal institutions
Challenge perceived media bias
Reassert influence over cultural and educational systems
And since January 2025, we’ve seen clear alignment between those priorities and actions taken by Donald Trump and his administration.
Because this isn’t about governing …It never was.
They not only want to control the institutions; they want to control the culture.
The Comcast Spin-Off
While one side is consolidating power, Comcast took a different approach.
It spun off MSNBC, CNBC and several NBCUniversal cable assets into a new company: Versant.
That sounds like decentralization.
But the reality is way more complicated.
Those networks were already facing:
Declining cable audiences
Advertising pressure
A shrinking traditional TV model
Now they’re operating independently—without the financial backing of major conglomerate Comcast.
And now they will most likely have to compete against a consolidated Paramount-Warner giant.
So the real question is:
Can they even survive?
Or do they become a weakened competitor, a target for acquisition, or worse—a casualty of a rapidly consolidating industry?
Versant isn’t stability.
It’s a stress test.
This Is Bigger Than Politics
It’s easy to frame this as left vs. right.
That misses the point.
This is about concentration of power.
Because when fewer entities control the news, entertainment, distribution, and algorithms…
They don’t just influence opinion.
They shape reality itself.
What gets covered.
What gets ignored.
What feels normal.
Why Independent Media Matters NOW More Than Ever
There used to be space between power centers.
That space is shrinking.
And when it disappears, independent media stops being optional.
It becomes essential.
Not because it’s perfect.
But because it’s not centralized.
Because it answers to its audience—not a boardroom.
Because it can still say what others won’t.
The Bottom Line
This isn’t just another wave of mergers.
This is the construction of a system where:
Fewer voices control more narratives
Fewer companies shape more perception
And fewer incentives exist to challenge power
And once that system is fully built…
You won’t notice what’s missing.
Because you’ll only see what they want you to see.
Support What Isn’t Owned
If you care about: A press that isn’t consolidated, narratives that aren’t coordinated and systems that still allow real dissent...
Then now is the moment to support independent media.
Because freedom doesn’t exist on it’s own…
It exists because people choose it, support it, and fight for it.
Pragmotiv News exists outside that system.
And in the media landscape that has emerged…
That might be the most important thing about us.