This is the blueprint. It's further along than you think.

[berg80]

How Hungary’s Orbán uses control of the media to escape scrutiny and keep the public in the dark​

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — In the months leading up to elections for the European Parliament, Hungarians were warned that casting a ballot against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán would be a vote for all-out war.

The right-wing Fidesz party cast the June 9 election as an existential struggle, one that could preserve peace in Europe if Orbán won — or fuel widespread instability if he didn’t. To sell that bold claim, Orbán used a sprawling pro-government media empire that’s dominated the country’s political discourse for more than a decade.

How Hungary's Orbán uses control of the media to escape scrutiny and keep the public in the dark | The Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — In the months leading up to elections for the European Parliament, Hungarians were warned that casting a ballot against Prime

www.ap.org

Is the US susceptible to the same kind of state media control exhibited in other authoritarian lead nations? I would argue it is not. But, has increasing ownership of media outlets come in to the possession of billionaires, much like Russian oligarchs, who curry favor with or outright support Don?

If you would like to know more watch the clip at the link below titled, 'Chilling;' Hayes reacts to Jimmy Kimmel suspension following trump's FCC threats.

All In with Chris Hayes

www.msnbc.com

You'll also find some disturbing info here.......

Top Trump Ally May Soon Control TikTok and CNN​

Neither of these deals have been realized. But I want to flag something on the horizon that is potentially a very big deal. Yesterday, the Wall the Street Journal broke the news that the White House has negotiated a purchase of TikTok by a consortium that includes Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz. The deal hasn’t been finalized yet. And it’s a whole other issue that you have the White House organizing something like this. The key, for our purposes, is Oracle and the Ellison family. This potentially takes TikTok out of the hands (indirectly) of the Chinese government (though the details there remain to be seen) and places it into the hands of key allies of President Trump. Meanwhile Paramount and CBS are now owned by Skydance, under the nominal rule of David Ellison, son of Oracle kingpin Larry Ellison. And Skydance/Paramount is now making a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN.

There are a bunch of details I’m skipping over here. These are all deals in process. They could fall through. Warner Bros. Discovery’s market cap is twice that of Paramount/Skydance. So that’s a merger more than an acquisition. For our purposes however those are minor points. The key is that in the pretty near future the Ellison family might control CBS, CNN and TikTok.

Top Trump Ally May Soon Control TikTok and CNN

Neither of these deals have been realized. But I want to flag...

talkingpointsmemo.com

Ever hear the saying, "You don't know what you don't know?" If stories critical of the government aren't being reported in a cowed media landscape---accurately, completely, or not at all---due to fear of retribution from the trump government..............how would we know? How would we know about the amount of reporting being affected by this?

AI Overview

As of September 2025, Donald Trump has sued at least five media companies in the past year, with lawsuits against others filed in earlier years. The exact number is difficult to determine because he has filed multiple lawsuits against some outlets and settled others, while also threatening to sue many more.
Recent and active lawsuits include:

• The New York Times: In September 2025, Trump filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the Times over its coverage and a book published by two of its reporters. This follows other lawsuits he has previously filed against the newspaper.
• The Wall Street Journal: In July 2025, he filed a $10 billion defamation case against the Journal and its publisher, Dow Jones, concerning a report about a letter allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein.
• The Des Moines Register: In late 2024, Trump sued the newspaper and its pollster over a poll released before the 2024 election. The lawsuit is still active.

Settled lawsuits from 2024–2025 include:

• Paramount/CBS News: In July 2025, the parent company of CBS News settled a lawsuit with Trump for $16 million over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview featuring then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
• ABC News: In December 2024, ABC News settled a defamation suit with Trump for $15 million. The lawsuit was related to comments made by host George Stephanopoulos during an interview.

Other past lawsuits and legal threats:

• CNN: Trump filed a $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN in 2022, though a federal judge later threw out the case.
• The Washington Post: In May 2025, Trump's media company, Truth Social, sued the Post for $3.78 billion over an article about its finances.
• Threats against other outlets: In addition to formal litigation, Trump has also publicly threatened to sue other outlets like CNN.

 

[berg80]

The idea a trump lackey like Brendan Carr would make a thinly veiled threat against a major media outlet for an innocuous comment like Kimmel's if it was made about someone trump considered an enemy, is ludicrous.

 

[berg80]

President Donald Trump’s pressure on media companies is mounting.

On Wednesday, the Walt Disney Company pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air “indefinitely” from its ABC network after the host made comments linking the alleged killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

The move is drawing comparisons to CBS’s cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” in July and raising questions about the protection of free speech in a Trump-era broadcast environment.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA Gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said during a monologue that aired Tuesday night.

“In between the finger-pointing there was grieving. On Friday the White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level you can see how hard the president is taking this,” he continued, teeing up a clip of Trump on the White House lawn.

Trump was asked how he was holding up in the wake of Kirk’s death, to which he answered, “I think very good,” before pivoting to point out that construction had started on the new $200 million ballroom project.

“He’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction,” Kimmel joked.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/18/jimmy-kimmel-trump-pressure-on-the-media-mounting.html

No wonder Carr made the threat against ABC. Dotard was pissed.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

How Hungary’s Orbán uses control of the media to escape scrutiny and keep the public in the dark​

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — In the months leading up to elections for the European Parliament, Hungarians were warned that casting a ballot against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán would be a vote for all-out war.

The right-wing Fidesz party cast the June 9 election as an existential struggle, one that could preserve peace in Europe if Orbán won — or fuel widespread instability if he didn’t. To sell that bold claim, Orbán used a sprawling pro-government media empire that’s dominated the country’s political discourse for more than a decade.

How Hungary's Orbán uses control of the media to escape scrutiny and keep the public in the dark | The Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — In the months leading up to elections for the European Parliament, Hungarians were warned that casting a ballot against Prime

www.ap.org

Is the US susceptible to the same kind of state media control exhibited in other authoritarian lead nations? I would argue it is not. But, has increasing ownership of media outlets come in to the possession of billionaires, much like Russian oligarchs, who curry favor with or outright support Don?

If you would like to know more watch the clip at the link below titled, 'Chilling;' Hayes reacts to Jimmy Kimmel suspension following trump's FCC threats.

All In with Chris Hayes

www.msnbc.com

You'll also find some disturbing info here.......

Top Trump Ally May Soon Control TikTok and CNN​

Neither of these deals have been realized. But I want to flag something on the horizon that is potentially a very big deal. Yesterday, the Wall the Street Journal broke the news that the White House has negotiated a purchase of TikTok by a consortium that includes Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz. The deal hasn’t been finalized yet. And it’s a whole other issue that you have the White House organizing something like this. The key, for our purposes, is Oracle and the Ellison family. This potentially takes TikTok out of the hands (indirectly) of the Chinese government (though the details there remain to be seen) and places it into the hands of key allies of President Trump. Meanwhile Paramount and CBS are now owned by Skydance, under the nominal rule of David Ellison, son of Oracle kingpin Larry Ellison. And Skydance/Paramount is now making a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN.

There are a bunch of details I’m skipping over here. These are all deals in process. They could fall through. Warner Bros. Discovery’s market cap is twice that of Paramount/Skydance. So that’s a merger more than an acquisition. For our purposes however those are minor points. The key is that in the pretty near future the Ellison family might control CBS, CNN and TikTok.

Top Trump Ally May Soon Control TikTok and CNN

Neither of these deals have been realized. But I want to flag...

talkingpointsmemo.com

Ever hear the saying, "You don't know what you don't know?" If stories critical of the government aren't being reported in a cowed media landscape---accurately, completely, or not at all---due to fear of retribution from the trump government..............how would we know? How would we know about the amount of reporting being affected by this?

AI Overview

As of September 2025, Donald Trump has sued at least five media companies in the past year, with lawsuits against others filed in earlier years. The exact number is difficult to determine because he has filed multiple lawsuits against some outlets and settled others, while also threatening to sue many more.
Recent and active lawsuits include:

• The New York Times: In September 2025, Trump filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the Times over its coverage and a book published by two of its reporters. This follows other lawsuits he has previously filed against the newspaper.
• The Wall Street Journal: In July 2025, he filed a $10 billion defamation case against the Journal and its publisher, Dow Jones, concerning a report about a letter allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein.
• The Des Moines Register: In late 2024, Trump sued the newspaper and its pollster over a poll released before the 2024 election. The lawsuit is still active.

Settled lawsuits from 2024–2025 include:

• Paramount/CBS News: In July 2025, the parent company of CBS News settled a lawsuit with Trump for $16 million over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview featuring then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
• ABC News: In December 2024, ABC News settled a defamation suit with Trump for $15 million. The lawsuit was related to comments made by host George Stephanopoulos during an interview.

Other past lawsuits and legal threats:

• CNN: Trump filed a $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN in 2022, though a federal judge later threw out the case.
• The Washington Post: In May 2025, Trump's media company, Truth Social, sued the Post for $3.78 billion over an article about its finances.
• Threats against other outlets: In addition to formal litigation, Trump has also publicly threatened to sue other outlets like CNN.

This is the fascist Trump regime; Trump is the enemy of free speech and free expression.

 

[berg80]

This is the fascist Trump regime; Trump is the enemy of free speech and free expression.

All the elements are there to one degree or another.

https://osbcontent.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/PC-00466.pdf

 

[marvin martian]

This is the fascist Trump regime; Trump is the enemy of free speech and free expression.

LOL

 

[22lcidw]

This is the fascist Trump regime; Trump is the enemy of free speech and free expression.

Vee offa zee vorld, order! Sauerbraten and Strudel for all.

 

[Rogue AI]

And where was this silliness when media cover for a brain dead Biden? You loons don't even see it do you? Wow.

 

[Woodznutz]

Vee offa zee vorld, order! Sauerbraten and Strudel for all.

Don't you mean "Shtrudel"?

 

[berg80]

And where was this silliness when media cover for a brain dead Biden? You loons don't even see it do you? Wow.

There's nothing silly about the shift to autocracy.

The New York Times published a project Friday outlining what its editorial board argued is an alarming shift toward authoritarianism by President Trump during the first 10 months of his second administration.

“The clearest sign that a democracy has died is that a leader and his party make it impossible for their opponents to win an election and hold power,” the Times editorial board wrote in summarizing its analysis. “Once that stage is reached, however, the change is extremely difficult to reverse. And aspiring authoritarians use other excesses, like a cowed legislature and judiciary, to lock in their power.”

The board laid out a dozen different ways Trump has changed the operations of the U.S. government, arguing he is moving America away from democracy and toward a more centralized system of power among its leaders. These examples included “stifling speech and dissent,” “prosecuting political enemies,” “bypassing the legislature” and “using the military for domestic control.”

“Our country is still not close to being a true autocracy, in the mold of Russia or China. But once countries begin taking steps away from democracy, the march often continues,” the editorial reads. “We offer these 12 markers as a warning of how much Americans have already lost and how much more we still could lose.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5583103-new-york-times-editorial-measures-trump-autocracy/

 

[berg80]

And where was this silliness when media cover for a brain dead Biden? You loons don't even see it do you? Wow.

An authoritarian bypasses the legislature. Trump has started to.
When a democracy slides toward autocracy, the leader often finds ways to neuter the legislature, turning it into a body that rubber stamps his decisions. Congress has started down this path. The Constitution makes clear, in Article I, that Congress alone has the power of the purse. Mr. Trump is undermining this system.

His administration has violated federal law at least six times by withholding funding authorized by Congress for libraries, preschools, scientific research and more, the Government Accountability Office found. He has gutted or dismantled congressionally authorized agencies like the Department of Education and U.S.A.I.D. He has also imposed new taxes — his tariffs — without congressional approval. Since the current government shutdown began, he has used donations from billionaires to pay troops and finance the construction of a ballroom at the White House.

Some of the blame lies with the Republican leaders of Congress, who have failed to fight his power grabs. Their complicity does not change the fact that these power grabs have been illegal.
The Bottom Line
Mr. Trump has defied the Constitution by trampling on Congress’s power of the purse. In full autocracies, legislatures often formally transfer some of their authority to the executive, and some congressional Republicans have proposed such changes.

Opinion | Are We Losing Our Democracy?

Donald Trump has wielded power as no previous president has.

www.nytimes.com