Larry Ellison, the key figure in the Republican assault on the US media, wants to thwart Netflix's plans

BarcelonaThe difference between God and Larry Ellison is that God doesn't think he's Larry Ellison. This is the telling title of the biography of the founder of the software company Oracle, the third richest man on the planet—for a few hours he was the richest—and a key figure in the shift that Trumpism wants to implement in the United States' communications system. For the moment, the American president has already designated him as the person he would like to lead the acquisition of TikTok so that it is no longer in Chinese hands, thus resolving the concerns about espionage and security generated by the social network's ties to the authorities of the Asian country. And his son, David Ellison, is president and CEO of Paramount, the media conglomerate that wants to thwart Netflix's purchase of Warner with a higher financial offer and the backing of the White House.

There is a fundamental difference between the two acquisition offers. While Netflix only wants to buy its film studios and rival platform HBO Max, Paramount aims to acquire the entire company, which includes television networks like TBS, TNT, and, above all, CNN, giving the Ellison family significant editorial influence. In their offer, they value the company at $108 billion (Netflix valued it at $82 billion) and promise to complete the process in twelve months (instead of the eighteen months maximum set by Ted Sarandos' company). A relevant detail that demonstrates this is Trump's preferred option is that part of the improved financial offer comes from $24 billion contributed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and the investment fund Affinity Partners, founded and managed by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law.

Control of the airwaves and networks

The move to change the patriarch of the clan's ownership of TikTok goes beyond a simple change in shareholding. At stake is taking control of the algorithm that decides which content is shown and which is silenced for users. "We'll have very good control. We're talking about American investors, and they all love our country, they're well-known people, very famous, in fact, and they'll have control," Trump said at an informal press conference at the White House on September 19, 2025. One of the names he mentioned was Ellison's. A week later, he was asked if this meant that, after the acquisition, the algorithm would promote MAGA content (referring to the ideological movement that groups around the slogan "MAGA").Make America great againThe response was categorical: "If I could do it 100% MAGA, I would. But it's not going to work that way. Unfortunately not, everyone will be treated fairly." But it's clear to everyone that this "fairly" can be highly subjective, especially in the hands of a president who doesn't hesitate to insult and denigrate the media outlets that challenge him.

have begun to move other pieces that position them as the main bastion of the new media landscape that Trump, who has spent the last decade accusing traditional media of being enemies of the people and functioning only as a mouthpiece for progressives, would like to establish. At 41 years old and with no experience in the world of television, this journalist has managed to take the helm of one of the traditional television networks after having distinguished herself as a scourge of progressives in the country since her The Free Press newsletter. I had previously worked for The Wall Street Journal and as head of Opinion at New York TimesShe resigned from her position, believing the newspaper was falling into an echo chamber where only columns reinforcing the pro-Democrat editorial line were published, instead of opening the debate to other viewpoints. The publication of an article in which she called for military intervention to quell racial protests sparked an internal rebellion in the newsroom—which is radically separate from the Opinion section, as is common in Anglo-Saxon media—and the resulting discontent led to her departure.

When Paramount Skydance acquired her for its subsidiary CBS News, the conglomerate bought her newsletter for $150 million. One of the hits This medium published, for example, the empowering interview with actress Gina Carano, after she was fired from the series. The Mandalorian, from Disney+, for social media posts in which he appeared to compare being a Republican in the United States in 2021 to being Jewish in Holocaust-era Germany.

The understanding with the regulators

This top-down takeover is interpreted as the Ellison family's way of responding to a series of commitments made to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) when it requested the audiovisual regulator to authorize the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance to create a new media and film giant. In the letter defending the move, the company stated that it would "take steps to eradicate the biases that have eroded trust in national news channels," a clear gesture to align itself with Trump's narratives regarding what are known in the country as the legacy mediaThat is, the major traditional media outlets. The FCC's approval, and an $8 billion investment, allowed the merger to be finalized.

CBS, owned by Paramount, is the same network that agreed to pay $16 million to a Donald Trump foundation to avoid going to court over the Kamala Harris interview, which the American president considered fraudulently edited. It is assumed that this money not only saved them from going to court, but was also a necessary condition for obtaining approval from the FCC, headed by one of Trump's acolytes, Brendan Carr. Just days after the agreement, the network surprised everyone with a reversal: it canceled the late show Stephen Colbert's critical commentary on Trump will cease airing in May. The arguments being canceled due to financial losses have failed to convince analysts critical of the current White House occupant.