Another Domino Just Fell. But We Have The Answer

CNN's hostile takeover marks a dark new chapter. If we let it.

In the next 12 months, most of the largest newsrooms in America will likely be controlled by billionaire political donors who shield the MAGA regime from accountability. That’s exactly why Raw America exists — and why reader support matters now, not later.

The pending sale of CNN’s parent company reminds me of a prescient quote from the Gilded Age. In 1910, Louis Brandeis said: “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”

Paramount CEO David Ellison — son of billionaire Trump donor Larry Ellison — is about to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery for $111 billion. This means he’s about to do to CNN what he’s doing to CBS. That is, turn yet another legacy media brand into a mouthpiece that runs cover for the regime and their billionaire enablers.

$24 billion of the financing that enables this oligarch takeover of Warner Brothers is coming from the Saudis, who brutally murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The capture of CNN was also orchestrated by the Trump regime, who fought off Netflix’s bid and are already running victory laps.

Make no mistake: This is a hostile takeover of American journalism, and it’s happening now. Independent media is the last firewall against the billionaire-led conquest of the Fourth Estate. And that’s why we started Raw America. To have a legitimately people powered response to MAGA and the oligarchs who enable MAGA’s takeover of media. Join us.

Democracy depends on an informed populace. When billionaires use their bottomless wealth to replace news with propaganda, they corrupt democracy. As Brandeis said, concentrated wealth is fundamentally undemocratic.

It isn’t just CBS and CNN. Jeff Bezos is bleeding the Washington Post dry and gutting its Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom. Pharma executive Patrick Soon-Shiong is hollowing out the Los Angeles Times. Silicon Valley oligarchs own the biggest search engines and social media platforms. More than 130 local newspapers went out of business last year alone.

MAGA billionaires want to own the media so they can shut off all forms of accountability. But there’s one thing that gives me hope: You.

Since Raw America launched in January, you’ve helped us become one of the fastest-growing independent media companies in America. We’re in the process of hiring a Capitol reporter so we can have eyes and ears on Congress. We’re about to launch a series of Substack Lives, where you can watch live interviews with newsmakers. We have bold and ambitious plans to grow Raw America to where we can go toe-to-toe with the billionaire-owned media brands shielding the regime from accountability. You’ll get exclusive Capitol Hill reporting, Subscriber-only live interviews with lawmakers and whistleblowers, direct access to Q&As with our newsroom, early access to investigations before they break nationally, and zero corporate advertisers influencing coverage.

But I’ll be honest: None of this can be realized without your support. We don’t have bottomless riches. We’re supported solely by readers like you who understand what we’re up against, who are hungry for the information corporate media would rather sweep under the rug.

Oligarchs’ plan to conquer the media has one weakness: Reader-funded media free from their influence. But that will only be a pipe dream without your financial support. If just 1 in 20 of those reading this email right now stepped up to become paid subscribers, we could completely fund our entire expansion plan through 2026 that enables us to go toe to toe with the oligarchs.

Will you be one of the 1 in 20?

We’re in a perilous moment for democracy. The Trump regime is suing states for access to their voter rolls, and is working hand-in-glove with MAGA activists on a plan to declare a national emergency in order to impose draconian new restrictions on voting. The regime’s donors are counting on their puppet media outlets to keep people in the dark about their plans. That’s where we come in.

I started Raw Story in 2004 because I believed that Americans deserve honest media that doesn’t pull punches to please advertisers and super-wealthy owners. I started Raw America to deliver the people-powered response to the billionaire takeover of our airwaves that is quite literally transforming us into a vassal state for the powerful. That mission has never been more apparent in this current moment. And we are uniquely positioned to do it.

50 years from now, history books will either chronicle the last gasps of American democracy in the 2020s, or document how it prevailed thanks to a well-informed public that refused to stop fighting back against the robber barons of the 21st century.

You can help decide what the history books will say.

Thanks for joining us. And thanks for believing in the power of independent media.

—John Byrne,

Founder, Raw Story and Raw America