Racist billionaire Elon Musk will now have access to an even larger media platform to promote hatred, misinformation and self-praise after investing a billion dollars in Skydance, the media juggernaut that owns Paramount and Warner Bros.
Semafor announced the investment on Thursday. The investment in Skydance comes a few years after billionaire Larry Ellison, who owns Skydance with his son David Ellison, put together financing to help Musk acquire Twitter. After Musk bought Twitter, he changed the name to X and reportedly tweaked the algorithm to prioritize racism, anti-Semitism and his own posts.
Access to Skydance puts Musk, the world’s richest man, in the position of having even more influence over media than he already has at
Musk and the Ellisons are all major donors to the Republican Party and close political allies of President Donald Trump. During the current election cycle, Musk, through his America PAC, has been the highest-profile donor to the Republican Party. Musk is leading a multistate effort to preserve the Republican majority in Congress, where Democrats have said they intend to investigate media control by Skydance and Musk’s companies.
During his second term, Trump expanded his war on free speech and used government power through agencies like the FCC to attack independent media, his perceived political allies, and even to crack down on comedians like Jimmy Kimmel. Just this week, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened to revoke the licenses of media companies that report polls showing Republicans behind Democrats.
Related | The Paramount merger sucks for everyone except David Ellison
Increasing media consolidation under the influence of pro-MAGA voices has already led to an increase in the suppression of reporting critical of Trump, Republicans, and conservatives. When he’s not spending hundreds of millions to support Republicans, Musk works to elevate bigotry, racism, and misogyny around the world through X.
The future of free speech and independent journalism is looking bleaker thanks to Musk using his fortune – much of it funded by the American public – to reshape the media to his liking.
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