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Good Morning and Happy Friday! Thanks for reading today.
The media world (and by extension, the rest of the world) got some bad news last night. Netflix declined to up its bid for media giant Warner Brothers, leaving Paramount-Skydance as the remaining bidder.
Any purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery needs approval from regulators in the United States and Europe, including the Justice Department’s antitrust division. In an event where Paramount is unable to secure the proper regulatory approvals, Netflix could potentially revive its interest as a buyer.
For now, though, the war for Warner Bros. Discovery appears to have been all but decided in favor of Mr. Ellison, a 43-year-old budding mogul who came to Hollywood two decades ago as an aspiring actor and, somewhat improbably, could now control two of the town’s most famed movie studios, along with the prestige television channel HBO and the 24-hour news network CNN.
Although in some ways a traditional corporate cage match, the fight for Warner Bros. also drew political scrutiny — particularly around the closeness of Larry and David Ellison to President Trump, who broke precedent by declaring he would “be involved” in the outcome.
Why is this bad news? Well, I’ll let former Labor Secretary and smartest man in every room, Robert Reich, explain.
The richest man owns X. The second and third richest men control Google. The fourth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The fifth richest man owns The Washington Post. And now the sixth richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros. See the problem here?
— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) 2026-02-26T23:40:47.322Z
If Paramount’s bid goes through and it’s allowed to acquire Warner Brothers, it will mean that the MAGA-embracing Ellison family will own CBS News, CNN, and Headline News, in addition to HBO/MAX, Discovery, TNT, and too many other stations to list here. All of that, of course, is in addition to everything Paramount already owns, like CBS, Smithsonian Channel, and dozens of local CBS stations. In effect, CBS, CNN, Headline News, and FOX News will all be owned by the right, and ABC/Disney has a history of bending the knee to the Trump administration. Monopolies hurt all of us, and they hurt free speech the most.
Also, this may mean Bari Weiss will be in charge of news at CNN. Get ready for a panel made up entirely of Scott Jenningses. Ugh.
Given that we can’t even trust the DOJ to follow basic court orders, it seems unlikely that it would try to block Paramount, especially with the nepo baby son of Trump’s BFF, David Ellison, financing the whole thing. It’s also worth mentioning that Trump has pressured Netflix to fire board member Susan Rice, after the former UN Ambassador criticized corporations that have bowed to Trump.
While I hate to see monopolies of any kind, monopolies in media are especially frustrating, particularly because they leave fewer outlets to stand up to Trump’s bullying. Imagine how laser-focused Trump’s attention will be on ABC and NBC News if he has CNN, FOX, and CBS News under his thumb? Trump is already suing the BBC for defamation, and he's done his damndest to defund PBS and NPR. Where will Americans turn for unbiased news?
All of this is monumentally frustrating to journalists, who have seen our job prospects dwindle dramatically over the last five years. So many brave reporters are ready and willing to do good and important work, but have been forced out of the industry by private equity and other factors. As I wrote earlier on Bluesky, I keep seeing people asking freelance journalists to “band together” to form independent outlets, but creating a newsroom requires time and resources, both of which require cash. Where are fledgling outlets supposed to get it? We all go running to MacKenzie Scott?
I vaguely remember AT&T (Ma Bell) being broken up when I was very young (mostly because my Great Aunt, who played the stock market, went on and on about it). Back then, with Ronald Reagan in office, no less, the DOJ filed an antitrust suit against AT&T, which dominated America's telecommunications infrastructure.
Some 40 years later, we desperately need candidates who are willing to break up the monopolies that threaten the free flow of information to Americans.
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In other news: Zohran Mamdani's rizz works on Trump again; It's time to worry about the fairness of midterm elections; The GOP drags Hillary Clinton into the Epstein investigation; and The High Note.
BTW, I know comments have been wonky lately. I tried changing the settings, and hopefully that will fix the problem.
Here we go.
Can we get Mamdani to ask Trump to release the Epstein files?
Yesterday, after ICE lied their way into a dorm at Columbia University, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani managed to charm Trump into releasing a student who had been snatched. Here’s the rundown on how it happened:
In a dizzying sequence of events, a Columbia University undergraduate arrested by federal immigration agents in her college apartment Thursday morning was released later in the day after New York City’s mayor intervened directly with President Trump.
***
The drama at Columbia began unfolding shortly after 6 a.m. on Thursday, when five plainclothes immigration agents arrived at the university-owned apartment building of the student and demanded to be let inside, said Claire Shipman, the acting president of Columbia, in a statement released Thursday night.
The officers falsely told the building superintendent that they were from the Police Department and said that they were searching for a missing child. The superintendent let the officers in, Ms. Shipman said.
At the apartment door of the student, Ellie Aghayeva, 29, the officers repeated the same story to gain entry. “Our security cameras captured the agents in the hallway showing pictures of the alleged missing child,” Ms. Shipman said.
Once the agents entered the apartment, it was clear that they had misrepresented themselves. A public security officer arrived and asked for a warrant, which was not produced, Ms. Shipman said. They refused to give the officer time to call his supervisor, and they then took the student, she said, calling the situation “utterly unacceptable.”
The “arrest” took place around 10 am Thursday morning, but by 3 pm, the student had been released, thanks to Donald Trump's bizarre fascination with Mayor Mamdani, who happened to be heading to DC to speak with Trump already.
Who remembers when Trump started emulating Mamdani's style of dress one day after their first meeting?
Anyway, Mamdani seems to have some kind of hold over Trump that no one really understands.
“I shared my concerns about Columbia student Elmina Aghayeva, who was detained by ICE this morning,” Mr. Mamdani said, describing his conversation with Mr. Trump in a social media post.
Just after 3 p.m., the White House called with a reply. “He has just informed me that she will be released imminently,” Mr. Mamdani wrote.
The student, Almina Aghayeva, has been in the US since 2016, and is still in the process of being removed, but at least she’s not waiting for her legal proceedings to begin in a jail cell in some horrible ICE facility in Texas. I’m interested in seeing what a judge will make of ICE straight-up lying to a university official to gain access to Aghayeva’s apartment without a search warrant, as required by law. As we’ve seen in recent weeks, the judiciary has had it with the DOJ and ICE.
What else can we get Mamdani to ask Trump for? A functioning and effective EPA? Universal health and childcare? To abolish ICE? The possibilities are endless.
Is it time to panic about the midterms?
As early as January, 2025, a fair number of those on the left were convinced that Trump would find a way to cancel the midterm elections. I don’t doubt that the thought crossed his mind, but his lawyers were never going ot let him be so obvious about it. What they are going to do is try to disenfranchise as many on the left as possible and do their best to put their thumb on the scale.
Yesterday, we got a sense of how Trump plans to do that.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has directed his White House counsel’s office to explore the feasibility of an executive order requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration and photo identification at polling locations nationwide, even as his own lawyers have warned the moves would likely run into legal trouble, according to a senior White House official granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and White House staff secretary Will Scharf are among those overseeing the effort to determine whether a legally viable path forward exists.
Multiple media outlets reported yesterday that Trump has latched on to a theory that China interfered in the 2020 election, which, of course, is the only reason he lost.
The good news is that if Trump is considering an executive order, it almost certainly means the SAVE Act won’t pass the Senate. Another bit of hopeful news is that the Trump administration already tried to effect voter IDs by executive order, and was rightly slapped down by a federal judge.
But the reality is that Trump’s authority to unilaterally change election procedures is sharply limited, and the administration has already tested those limits — and lost. Last March, Trump signed an executive order requiring proof of citizenship on the national mail voter registration form and on a ballot request form used by military and overseas voters. A federal judge struck down both provisions on separation-of-powers grounds.
The best thing we can do to counteract Trump's nefarious villainy is to spread the word far and wide that everyone needs to check on their voter registration well ahead of the midterms, and we all need to get the vote out. It’s going to be all hands on deck for November.
Hillary is spittin’ mad
Yesterday, the House Oversight Committee, which has yet to depose Howard Lutnick, who infamously took his family to visit with Jeffrey Epstein years after he was convicted of soliciting sex from a minor, dragged Hillary Clinton into a deposition to, once again, answer for the behavior of her husband.
Let’s be clear. Hillary Clinton is not in the Epstein files. There is no evidence that Hillary Clinton has ever met or interacted with Jeffrey Epstein. In fact, she insists she hasn’t. Yet here we are. A friendly reminder that not a single GOP member showed up to Les Wexner’s deposition, and he was accused of being Epstein’s co-conspirator in trafficking children.
Hillary was righteously furious, and here’s here opening statement.
Hillary Clinton’s fire and fury opening statement to the House Oversight Committee.
— Just Jack (@just-jack-1.bsky.social) 2026-02-26T17:02:32.540Z
The deposition was “paused” after Lauren Boebert (R-CO) took a pic of Hillary testifying and leaked it to right-wing wacko Benny Johnson. Too bad he has no way of identifying exclusive photos.
It’s legitimately funny because look how far Boebert is from the action. She looks like she’s at the kids' table, which is definitely where she belongs.
Anyway, Hillary Clinton has now officially answered more questions about Jeffrey Epstein than Donald Trump, who reportedly appears in the Epstein files more than one million times.
The High Note
Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.
If you missed Jury Duty (2023, streaming on Prime), I can’t recommend enough that you rectify that mistake immediately, if for nothing else, to laugh your ass off at James Marsden. I'm thrilled to report that the same people who created that gem have another project coming out, called Company Retreat. Here’s the trailer:
One of the best things about Jury Duty was that it restored our faith in “regular” people and the system. Or at least it did for me. I’m hoping Company Retreat is just as delightful.
We're getting this and Project Hail Mary in the same week. My cup runneth over.
Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down. Have a great weekend.
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