Free Press

Launch graphic for MediaJustice's NEW report, "Media Capture: Who Controls the Story Controls the Future." A tech oligarch hand reaches down, picking up a TV icon representing CNN to add to their collection. The hand is filled with rings emblematic of other media (CBS, TikTok, Paramount Skydance, and TIME) and bracelets (MGM Studios, The Atlantic, The Washington Post). Below the hand is a receipt machine printing a sales receipt for Paramount ($8B), Washington Post ($250M), Time ($190M), MGM Studios ($8.5B), and The Atlantic ($100M). Below is the report bitly link "bit.ly/mediacapturereport".

Today, we’re releasing our NEW #report, Media Capture: Who Controls the Story Controls the Future. 📱💥

#Media is NOT neutral. Our report maps how #Tech Oligarchs are capturing the media ecosystem through ownership, monetary power, and platform control.
bit.ly/mediacapturereport

Government agents are collecting unprecedented amounts of personal data with little-to-no oversight or accountability from Big Tech.

The ICE Out of Our Faces Act stops the use facial recognition and other biometric-surveillance technologies.

Learn more: pressingissues.org/ed-markey-wa...

Palantir leaves Colorado after politicians chose between dirty money and the voters they represent (Opinion) “The largest recipient of donations from Palantir employees and the company’s PAC are PAC’s set up to support Trump. All you have to do to is follow the money.”

Our Head of Programs, Jacinta González dives into how political donations have secured #Palantir's business model and how two representatives shut these bribes down. @denverpost.com
www.denverpost.com/2026/02/20/p...

A Warning About Media Consolidation as We Face Another Senseless War Trump and his allies are working to consolidate the media into the hands of right-wing oligarchs. This is especially dangerous in a time of war.

"As we enter yet another war where too many innocent lives have already been lost, we’re no closer to having a media system that holds the powerful to account. But holding the line on further media consolidation is a critical step toward building one." - @jgo4justice.bsky.social

Trump's strategy to consolidate the media into the hands of right-wing oligarchs and to — as Steve Bannon would say — “flood the zone with shit" is straight out of the authoritarian playbook.

@jgo4justice.bsky.social's warning as we face another senseless war:

➡️ www.freepress.net/blog/warning...

Right Wing Trump-Friendly Billionaires Are Buying Up the Mainstream Media Background Briefing goes far beyond the headlines and deep under the radar to bring forward truths unheard elsewhere in American media. Background Briefing features international and national news, ex

Free Press co-CEO @jgo4justice.bsky.social joined Ian Masters of @ianmastersmedia.bsky.social to discuss how right wing Trump-friendly billionaires are buying up mainstream media.

Listen in: https://soundcloud.com/user-830442635/bbriefing_2026_03_01c_jessica-gonzalez-1

The Terrifying Tentacles of Paramount’s Media Empire The Ellisons are building a multicorporate network of data mining, surveillance, news, and entertainment. What could possibly go wrong?

This merger pushes America's fragile news ecosystem further towards right-wing propaganda.

"Our democracy is endangered by giving a family of pliant billionaires even more control of our news coverage, TV stations, and movie studios." - @notaaroncraig.bsky.social via @the-ringer.bsky.social

Big Tech Goes to War Big Tech’s largest firms are supplying the U.S. government with the tools it needs to go to war against Trump’s imagined enemies, both foreign and domestic.

"Rather than challenge a dictatorial regime, they’ve contributed tens of millions of dollars to Trump’s presidential campaign, inaugural ceremonies and other schemes, with execs regularly Lear-jetting to Mar-a-Lago to offer support and curry favor." - @timkarr.bsky.social in "Big Tech Goes to War"

⚠️ Beware of the military-technological complex.

Musk, Bezos, Google, & Musk send a clear message to Trump: Give us military and surveillance contracts and we'll help spread your authoritarian gospel to billions of people every day.

@timkarr.bsky.social explain:

www.freepress.net/blog/big-tec...

Trump just got much closer to bringing CNN to heel | Margaret Sullivan With David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance poised to buy Warner Bros Discovery, the president is tightening his grip on the US media

“Trump wants to control the news and his justice department has been largely purged of anyone who might ask too many questions of a deal like this.” - @notaaroncraig.bsky.social via @theguardian.com

Right Wing Trump-Friendly Billionaires Are Buying Up the Mainstream Media Background Briefing goes far beyond the headlines and deep under the radar to bring forward truths unheard elsewhere in American media. Background Briefing features international and national news, ex

We were joined by @jgo4justice.bsky.social, Co-CEO of @freepress.bsky.social, discussing how right wing Trump-friendly billionaires buying up the mainstream media. soundcloud.com/user-8304426...

A Warning About Media Consolidation as We Face Another Senseless War Trump and his allies are working to consolidate the media into the hands of right-wing oligarchs. This is especially dangerous in a time of war.

Paramount Skydance's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is a grave threat to democracy — especially in a time of war.

More here:

https://www.freepress.net/blog/warning-about-media-consolidation-paramount-wbd-time-of-war

Chokehold: Donald Trump’s War on Free Speech & the Need for Systemic Resistance This Free Press report examines the Trump administration’s hostile relationship with dissent and free expression in 2025. It analyzes how Trump and his political enablers have sought to undermine and ...

CHOKEHOLD examines the Trump administration’s hostile relationship with dissent and free expression in 2025, researched and written by Free Press' @attorneynora.bsky.social

“We took the freedom of speech away.” - President Trump in opening remarks at his “antifa roundtable” (October 2025)

Trump just got much closer to bringing CNN to heel | Margaret Sullivan With David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance poised to buy Warner Bros Discovery, the president is tightening his grip on the US media

“Trump wants to control the news and his justice department has been largely purged of anyone who might ask too many questions of a deal like this.” - @notaaroncraig.bsky.social via @theguardian.com

Amidst Violent Immigration Raids, DHS Turns to Big Tech to Silence Dissent Free Press advocacy director Jenna Ruddock says the Trump administration is targeting anyone monitoring its expanding immigration enforcement operations.

"Despite the inconsistent justifications, the throughline is clear: the Trump administration has set its sights on anyone monitoring its expanding immigration enforcement operations, and it’s turning to major tech companies to help." - @ruddock.bsky.social via @techpolicypress.bsky.social

How We Got to Minneapolis Andrea Flores on the roots of government violence and what it will take to stop it

"I don’t think most Americans realize how we got here.

I think about the 23 years since ICE and CBP were formed after 9/11, and how this raw recklessness always felt baked in. But now there's a boss approving and ignoring their blatant unconstitutionality." - @juliorvarela.com, Pressing Issues

History teaches us that a free press cannot exist under mass surveillance. Nor can free speech survive in a chokehold.

As @josephtorr.bsky.social says: Surveillance was never about safety. It's about maintaining social control in the service of white supremacy.

We've been here before. 🧵 >

“What appears to be the defining conflict of Trump’s presidency thus far is unfolding largely outside the sight of Western journalists.”

How Grok’s Demons Are Already Haunting the 2026 Election One independent researcher’s effort to stop Elon Musk’s election-disinformation machine

We @freepress.bsky.social @juliorvarela.com interviewed Raelyn Roberson, an amazing researcher and organizer, about how Grok is already prepping to mislead voters by sowing discord. pressingissues.org/groks-demons...

We’re live in 20 minutes to discuss new research revealing biases in AI.

Stop the Paramount–WBD Merger
Media consolidation isn’t efficiency — it’s control. When a handful of billionaires swallow legacy studios and newsrooms, diversity of voices shrinks and public accountability weakens. Regulators must block this deal. Democracy needs competition, not monopoly.

Signed.

Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is a disaster that would endanger our democracy and give David and Larry Ellison — a MAGA-loving family of billionaires — even more control over what we see and hear.

SIGN to block the merger:

➡️ act.freepress.net/sign/block-p...

In 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower warned the world of the “military-industrial complex” — an economic system that puts the war economy above all else, even the needs of a democracy....

[ a🧵]

Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is a disaster that would endanger our democracy and give David and Larry Ellison — a MAGA-loving family of billionaires — even more control over what we see and hear.

SIGN to block the merger:

➡️ act.freepress.net/sign/block-p...

The threat is the point.

Free Press interviewed FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez who explained: "When a regulator publicly suggests that certain coverage could trigger scrutiny or consequences, people start to hesitate." -

Read more from @agomezfcc.bsky.social:

www.freepress.net/blog/qa-fcc-...

Big Media is so FCC'ed up.

Free Press' @timkarr.bsky.social explains how, in other words, big media self-censorship in 2026 is very real and all it takes is a threat from the Trump administration for major networks to buckle.

Read more: www.freepress.net/blog/fcc-equ...

Government agents are collecting unprecedented amounts of personal data with little-to-no oversight or accountability from Big Tech.

The ICE Out of Our Faces Act stops the use facial recognition and other biometric-surveillance technologies.

Learn more: pressingissues.org/ed-markey-wa...

February 2026: Free Press' Constitutional Rights & Free Speech Round Up

This month, the throughline was clear: infrastructure decisions are free speech decisions.

Here’s what we tracked 🧵

Ed Markey Wants ICE Out of Your Face The Massachusetts senator tells Pressing Issues: “Surveillance without limits becomes power without accountability. And power without accountability becomes tyranny.”

"The ICE Out of Our Faces Act does one simple thing: It stops Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection from using facial recognition and other biometric-surveillance technologies. Period." - @markey.senate.gov

Trump just got much closer to bringing CNN to heel | Margaret Sullivan With David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance poised to buy Warner Bros Discovery, the president is tightening his grip on the US media

Craig Aaron of @freepress.bsky.social: ‘Trump wants to control the news and his justice department has been largely purged of anyone who might ask too many questions of a deal like this’

Via @sulliview.bsky.social @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...