The Bombshell Claim Taking Over Reddit
A single Reddit post on r/technology racked up over 13,667 upvotes in a matter of hours — and for good reason. The claim at its center is stunning: that Donald Trump and his political allies are systematically engineering a dominant position across America’s most influential media properties simultaneously. We’re talking Fox News, CBS, CNN, and TikTok — the four corners of how tens of millions of Americans consume news and political information every single day.
If even partially true, this represents the most aggressive attempt at media consolidation by a sitting or former U.S. president in modern history. It’s the kind of story that sounds like a political thriller — except the receipts, the deal timelines, and the regulatory decisions are all very real.
Here’s the full picture, piece by piece.
Step 1 — Fox News: The Foundation Already in Place
Any honest map of Trump’s media influence has to start with Fox News. The relationship between Trump and the Murdoch-owned network has been extensively documented — from primetime hosts coordinating messaging with the White House during his first term to the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit, which exposed internal Fox communications showing hosts privately doubting election fraud claims they publicly amplified.
Fox remains the most-watched cable news network in America, averaging around 2.5 million primetime viewers. It is the single most powerful media megaphone in conservative America, and by most accounts, it functions less as an independent journalistic outlet and more as an ideological partner to Trump’s political movement.
This isn’t speculation — it’s the established baseline from which the rest of the alleged strategy unfolds.
Step 2 — The Paramount/CBS Deal and What It Really Means
In 2024, Skydance Media reached a deal to merge with Paramount Global — the parent company of CBS News, one of the original Big Three broadcast networks. The deal was subject to regulatory approval, and critics immediately flagged that the Trump administration’s FCC holds enormous sway over whether the merger proceeds smoothly.
The concern? That regulatory pressure — whether explicit or implied — could give Trump-aligned interests leverage over CBS’s editorial direction. CBS News still reaches millions of Americans through its evening news broadcast, its streaming platform Paramount+, and its flagship news magazine 60 Minutes.
Notably, Trump publicly attacked 60 Minutes for its coverage of him during the 2024 campaign, even threatening legal action. When a president with FCC authority simultaneously threatens a broadcaster and has the power to slow or block that broadcaster’s crucial merger, the editorial chill effect is real — regardless of whether any explicit quid pro quo exists.
Step 3 — Blocking Netflix to Grab CNN? The Warner Bros. Theory
This is where the theory gets its most eyebrow-raising chapter. Warner Bros. Discovery — the parent company of CNN — has been widely reported to be in merger or acquisition discussions with Netflix. A combined Netflix-Warner entity would be a streaming colossus, potentially locking CNN into an independent, well-funded media structure for years.
The allegation circulating online is that Trump-aligned regulatory pressure could be used to block or complicate the Netflix-Warner deal, keeping Warner Bros. Discovery financially vulnerable — and thus potentially open to an acquisition by a more politically friendly buyer who could take control of CNN.
CNN has been a frequent Trump target for years — he famously branded it “the enemy of the people” and reveled in chants of “CNN sucks” at his rallies. A scenario in which CNN falls under ownership sympathetic to Trump would represent a seismic shift in American political media. CNN acquisition by any Trump-adjacent entity would effectively neutralize one of the last remaining mainstream cable news critics of his movement.
Step 4 — TikTok as a Political Lever
The TikTok ban saga added another dimension to this alleged media consolidation play. After Congress passed legislation forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a U.S. ban, Trump — who had previously tried to ban TikTok during his first term — suddenly reversed course and positioned himself as the app’s savior.
Why? TikTok has 170 million American users, skewing younger. It is arguably the most powerful short-form news and political content platform on the planet. Reports emerged of Trump allies exploring acquisition interest in TikTok’s U.S. operations, which would hand the administration extraordinary influence over the algorithm that shapes what young Americans see, share, and believe.
Control TikTok’s algorithm, and you don’t just own a media platform — you own the attention economy of an entire generation.
What Owning CNN and TikTok Simultaneously Would Mean for News Diversity
Let’s be direct about the stakes. If a single political figure or tightly aligned network of allies controlled Fox News, CBS News, CNN, and TikTok simultaneously, the implications for news diversity in America would be severe:
- Fox dominates right-leaning cable news (2.5M+ nightly viewers)
- CBS reaches mainstream broadcast audiences across all demographics
- CNN is the primary source for center-left cable news consumers and international audiences
- TikTok is the primary news discovery platform for Americans under 35
Together, these four platforms don’t just represent a large share of the media market — they represent a near-complete cross-demographic information pipeline. From your 65-year-old parent watching Fox in primetime to your 22-year-old sibling scrolling TikTok at midnight, the same political messaging architecture could theoretically be in play.
First Amendment Experts Are Ringing Alarm Bells
Constitutional scholars and press freedom advocates have not been quiet about this.
“When a president uses the regulatory apparatus of the federal government — the FCC, antitrust review, executive pressure — to shape media ownership toward politically friendly outcomes, that is a structural threat to the First Amendment, even if no law is technically broken.” — Constitutional law perspective widely cited in media freedom discussions
The First Amendment protects against government censorship, but it was not designed for an era where a president could potentially influence which corporations own the major channels of public discourse. Press freedom organizations including Reporters Without Borders have already downgraded the United States in their global press freedom rankings, citing political pressure on media institutions.
The legal mechanisms being discussed — FCC regulatory leverage, antitrust enforcement discretion, executive jawboning — are all technically legal tools. The concern isn’t illegality. It’s the cumulative effect of those tools pointed in the same direction.
How to Diversify Your News Sources Right Now
Regardless of your political affiliation, media concentration of any kind is a risk to an informed citizenry. Here’s how to diversify your news diet today:
- Read international outlets — The Guardian, BBC, Reuters, and AP provide U.S. news from outside the domestic political pressure ecosystem.
- Support local journalism — Local newspapers and independent newsrooms are far less susceptible to national political pressure. Consider subscribing.
- Use multiple platforms — If TikTok is your primary news source, supplement with newsletters, podcasts, or longform outlets like The Atlantic or ProPublica.
- Follow nonprofit newsrooms — Organizations like NPR, The Texas Tribune, and The Marshall Project operate under different ownership incentive structures.
- Be algorithmically aware — Understand that every platform’s algorithm is curating your reality. Actively seek out perspectives the algorithm doesn’t serve you.
The Bottom Line
The Trump media control story — spanning CNN, CBS, Fox, and TikTok — may be the most consequential media story of this political era. Whether you view it as a calculated power play or an overstated conspiracy theory, the underlying facts are not in dispute: regulatory decisions are being made that affect these media companies, political pressure on journalism is real and documented, and the ownership landscape of American media is shifting fast.
What is at stake isn’t just who owns which channel. It’s whether Americans in 2025 and beyond have access to a genuinely diverse, independently funded information ecosystem — or whether the news they consume is filtered through a single political lens, regardless of which network logo appears in the corner of the screen.
Stay informed. Diversify your sources. And keep asking who owns what you’re reading — including this.
Think this story matters? Share it with someone who gets their news from only one source. And drop your thoughts in the comments — we want to hear how you’re navigating the changing media landscape.