BREAKING: Paramount Hosts Secret CNN Takeover Dinner With Trump
Paramount’s bid to take over CNN is a five-alarm fire. Here’s what Raw America is doing — and why we need you today.
I need to be straight with you today.
Billionaire David Ellison just threw a private dinner in Washington for President Donald Trump. The guest list at Trump’s own table included Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News.
It also included Todd Blanche, Trump’s personal attorney and acting attorney general. The same attorney general whose Justice Department is reviewing Ellison’s $111 billion bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal that would hand him CNN and HBO.
Let me repeat that. The billionaire seeking federal approval to take over CNN hosted the president at a private dinner and sat the attorney general reviewing that deal next to Trump. Then he invited Bari Weiss to join them.
The invitations from Paramount described the evening as “honoring the Trump White House.”
This made me sick. That’s why I’m writing to you. Raw America needs your support. Here’s why I want you to consider upgrading your subscription today.
This is what’s happening to your news.
At the dinner, CBS reporters who work for Bari Weiss were stunned to see their own editor sitting at Trump’s table.
Outside the dinner, protesters’ signs read “Stop the Monopoly of the News” and “Block the merger.” Ordinary people understand what’s happening. Billionaires are grinding renowned news networks into dust.
Tonight, Stephen Miller and Pete Hegseth are scheduled to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner as guests of MAGA-aligned CBS News.
If the Warner Bros. deal goes through, one man will control CBS, CNN, HBO, and most of what’s left of American cable news. The same man who just hosted the president at dinner with the antitrust official reviewing his deal in the room.
Here’s what Raw America is doing about it.
I started Raw Story in 2004 because someone had to cover the raw truth the mainstream press was avoiding.
I returned to launch Raw America because what’s happening now is even more dangerous. Billionaires aren’t just ignoring stories anymore. They’re buying newsrooms, firing reporters, and seating the regulators next to the president at dinner.
Raw America just hired a reporter in Washington to cover the hearings that matter and the votes the networks ignore. I interviewed President Obama’s NATO Ambassador about the war in Iran. We stayed on the Epstein story when the rest of the press moved on.
We have bold plans for 2026. More reporters, more original coverage. But I need to be honest with you.
We’re behind on our fundraising goals.
Not because the work isn’t landing. The response from readers shows that it is. No: we’re behind because we don’t have a billionaire backer covering our costs.
And frankly, we don’t want one. Because the moment we do, we become them.
Every dollar that funds Raw America comes from readers like you. That’s our greatest strength, and right now, our most urgent need.
Why this week matters.
Paramount’s dinner was not a one-off. It was the opening act of a weekend designed around media capture.
Tonight, Trump takes the stage at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which exists to honor the First Amendment. It’s the first time Trump has attended as president. Two weeks ago, he told Fox News that reporting from The New York Times, ABC, and NBC was “almost treasonous.” He’ll now be feted by those same journalists.
The dinner will be televised on CNN, the network Ellison is trying to buy.
More than 400 journalists signed a letter this week urging the association to forcefully oppose Trump’s attacks on their profession. A petition signed by 250-plus veteran journalists called Trump’s presence “a profound contradiction” of the dinner’s purpose.
The association invited him anyway.
This is what media capture looks like: not subtle, not theoretical. Dinners, seating charts, licenses, merger reviews — all bundled into a single weekend in Washington.
The story of media capture is the story the captured press cannot tell. Their owners are at the table. Their regulators are at the table. Their future merger partners are at the table. What makes a story get told in a captured newsroom? Whether telling it is worth losing the merger, the license, or the seat at the table.
Raw America has no merger. No license. No seat at any table we have to protect. We answer to our subscribers and nobody else. We don’t sell wars. We don’t run cover for power. We don’t take calls from billionaires telling us which stories to kill.
That’s our biggest strength. But that independence is only real as long as readers like you are the ones funding it.
What I’m asking you to do.
If you’ve been reading Raw America and you haven’t yet become a paid subscriber, today is the day. Not next month. Today.
This weekend, the president of the United States will be feted by the press corps he wants to criminalize. With the FCC chair threatening their licenses in the room. With Stephen Miller and Pete Hegseth attending as CBS guests. With the acting attorney general reviewing the deal somewhere at the table.
Did you hear about Paramount’s dinner? I bet not. The people who own the cameras have decided not to tell you the full truth about any of it.
Your paid subscription isn’t a donation. It’s an investment in journalism that can’t be bought, threatened, or restructured out of existence.
Become a paid subscriber today. We’re not backing down from this fight. We just need you in it with us.
— John Byrne
Founder, Raw America and Raw Story
P.S. If you can’t support us financially today, we understand. Times are hard for a lot of people. But please forward our newsletters to someone who needs to see them. Share them on social media. Tell your friends about Raw America. Being present matters. Voting matters. Independent press matters. We’re here for you, and we’re not going anywhere.