The Richest Man in the World, Trump’s Buddy Larry Ellison, Will Soon Own Most of the Media and We Will Have Government TV and Wall-to-Wall Fox News
We begin with the frightening strides Trump is making towards a fascist takeover of American democracy as his notches up big wins in his war on the media with ABC’s suspension of his most annoying critic Jimmy Kimmel as his close ally Larry Ellison, the richest person in the world, except for Trump’s handler Putin, is poised to buy Warner/Discovery and TikTok after having bought CBS Paramount. Joined us is William Cohan, a former senior Wall Street investment banker for 17 years at Lazard Frères & Co., Merrill Lynch and JPMorganChase, as well as a New York Times best-selling author whose books include Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World, House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street, and, most recently, Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon. He is a founding partner at Puck News and we discuss his article at The New York Times, “The Billionaire Trump Supporter Who Will Soon Own the News.”
Trump’s MAGA Apparatchik Brendon Carr Uses Charlie Kirk to Kill Free Speech
Then we look into the ambush of Jimmy Kimmel by Trump’s MAGA apparatchik at the FCC Brendan Carr who seized upon a mild remark by the late night comedian about Charlie Kirk who the right are beatifying as a champion of free speech only to enact cancel culture against those who criticism or make fun of Carr’s “Dear Leader.” Joining us is Craig Aaron, president and co-CEO of Free Press Action. He is the editor of two books, Appeal to Reason: 25 Years of In These Times and Changing Media: Public Interest Policies for the Digital Age and he has an article at FREE PRESS we discuss “Federal Censorship Commission Reaches New Low in Push to Force Jimmy Kimmel Off the Air.”
Time For Jimmy Kimmel to Sue the Trump Administration
Then finally we examine Trump’s use of federal regulatory power to consolidate his control over the country and destroy his enemies and critics. Joining us to discuss a way to fight back is Aziz Huq, a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. He is a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and is the author of How to Save a Constitutional Democracy, and his latest book is The Collapse of Constitutional Remedies. We discuss his article at CNN, “Jimmy Kimmel Has Supreme Court Precedent on His Side: He should sue the Trump administration.”
Background Briefing offers an educational approach to providing information in an era of “fake news.”