Another major media conglomerate teeters on the precipice of being absorbed by a deep-pocketed ally of President Donald Trump and his administration.

At the end of last week, Netflix had a signed deal to purchase the theatrical and streaming divisions of Warner Bros., with the company’s cable division — including CNN — set to be spun off into a separate company. Netflix had previously defeated a rival offer for all of Warner Bros. from Paramount, the media conglomerate owned by David Ellison, a Trump favorite and the son of the president’s buddy Larry Ellison, the billionaire. 

Since then:

• On Saturday, Trump demanded that Netflix fire board member Susan Rice or face “consequences” while promoting an ally’s statement that he should “kill” the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal. (The president’s propagandists on Fox News had spent the previous days trying to turn Rice’s involvement with the company into a scandal.)
• On Monday, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos refused Trump’s demand, saying, “This is a business deal. It's not a political deal."
• On Tuesday, Warner Bros. announced it was considering a new bid from Paramount, putting the Netflix deal in doubt.
• On Wednesday, Politico reported that Sarandos had a White House meeting the next day to discuss Netflix’s bid.
• On Thursday, Warner Bros. said that it now viewed the Paramount bid as superior; soon after, Netflix said it would not raise its bid, effectively ceding to Paramount.

The rival bids provide the shape of what Sarandos described as “a business deal,” and surely all parties will present it as such. But no one else needs to pretend to be so gullible. 

Trump wanted Warner Bros. assets — particularly CNN, whose reporters he loathes — in the hands of an ally. His public statements and White House leaks made it crystal clear both that he preferred that Paramount purchase Warner Bros., and that his administration would corruptly wield its regulatory power to thwart rival bidders. And the strategy seems to have succeeded.

The result reeks of a “political deal” in which the president steered the ownership of a major news outlet to his crony. That’s unconscionable in a free society — but a familiar tactic of authoritarian leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who dismantled his country’s independent news media through such methods in service of his vision of “illiberal democracy,” which Trump seeks to emulate.

It’s working. In less than a year, CBS News and the massive social media platform TikTok, along with Paramount’s movie studios, have come under the thumb of a single family of pro-Trump billionaires. If the Warner Bros. purchase goes through, CNN, along with HBO and Warner’s movie business, will join them. 

For CBS News, the Ellison takeover has involved new right-wing newsroom leaders who impose onerous reviews of critical reporting, veteran journalists leaving for greener pastures, layoffs, and an influx of MAGA-friendly hires. CNN can expect the same treatment — indeed, the White House and Larry Ellison have reportedly already discussed the potential firing of particular CNN hosts “whom Donald Trump is said to loathe, including Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar.”

The owners of The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, seem to have been suborned and are disemboweling their institutions, while ABC News’ corporate owners have repeatedly capitulated to the administration.

We’ve warned for years that Trump intended to employ an authoritarian’s playbook against the media. That’s exactly what he’s done since returning to office. And now that he’s learned how easy it is to get corporate media owners to dance to his tune, it seems certain that he’ll soon find another target.