Boycott Dispatch #7: CBS/Paramount and everything the Ellisons destroy

Apr 18, 2026

It’d be nice if the boycott guide got shorter because corporations stopped fueling fascism.

A few have.

Not enough.

For every one that backs off, three more step in—or get absorbed by the ones already doing it.

So the list doesn’t shrink. It consolidates.

There used to be separate entries—CBS, Paramount, and all the companies they were swallowing. Warner Brothers was next up.

Now?

One entry does the job.

Same with airlines. United wants to swallow American, which means if you’re boycotting one, you’re basically boycotting both.

Efficiency, I guess.

The worst actors don’t disappear—they just get bigger, cleaner, harder to avoid.

The only real “shrinkage” is attrition.

Fewer companies.
Same problems.
More power concentrated in fewer hands.

Saves me time updating the list.

Costs us everything else.

Fuck this timeline.

7. Paramount, Warner Brothers, The Ellison Media Machine and All They Devour (UPDATED)

We’re going to proceed as if the merger already happened because, for all practical purposes, it has.

The only meaningful obstacle left was shareholder approval, and the shareholders approved it. The rest is theater. The Federal Communications Commission — whose job is supposedly to prevent exactly this kind of grotesque media consolidation — is now functionally controlled by the same corporate and political interests that profit from it.

So unless a meteor strikes a boardroom, this thing is done.

Add in one fat Trump-regime bribe, a few smiling press releases about “innovation,” and the runway is clear for the next season of Star Trek to feature Batman brooding on the bridge while democracy burns in the background.

And look — it would already be bad enough if this were just another merger designed to funnel more money upward into the swollen pockets of billionaires. We’ve been conditioned to accept that as normal.

But this is more dangerous than greed.

This is narrative capture.

This is far-right power structures swallowing culture, news, entertainment, memory, and communication itself.

They steal the voices.

They steal the ears.

And eventually they steal reality.

This entry is number seven on the boycott list. Honestly? It belongs higher. Maybe near the top. Maybe they all do.

Because in a post-logic society, ranking the engines of collapse starts feeling meaningless. Every one of these institutions is helping build the same machine.

And this one is enormous.

This Isn’t Just Corporate Rot. It’s Capture.

We grew up with these companies.

CBS meant something once.

Cronkite. Rather. Journalism that at least attempted to hold power accountable.

Paramount Pictures gave us stories that openly distrusted authoritarianism.

Star Trek imagined a future beyond fascism.

Superman used to punch Nazis in the mouth.

Now the corporations holding those stories platform the same authoritarian forces those stories warned us about.

Edited interviews.

Pulled segments.

Cowardly “both sides” framing for a movement openly flirting with authoritarianism.

This isn’t drift.

It’s direction.

And now the consolidation machine expands again under the orbit of billionaires like Larry Ellison and the broader oligarch class reshaping media into something obedient, profitable, and politically useful.

Media consolidation used to be about monopoly profits.

Now it’s about controlling perception itself.

Control the story → control reality.

You don’t need tanks in the streets if you can decide:

What gets seen
What gets repeated
What gets buried
What gets normalized
What gets laughed off
What gets forgotten

War kills bodies.

Narrative control kills accountability.

And when accountability dies, everything else follows.

The Expanding Media Blob

This isn’t just one company anymore.

It’s a sprawling information ecosystem swallowing everything around it.

News & Information

CNN
CBS
Local affiliate stations nationwide
International distribution networks

Streaming & Platforms

Paramount+
Max

Networks

MTV
Nickelodeon
Comedy Central
BET
Showtime
TNT
TBS
Discovery-owned channels and subsidiaries

Studios & Properties

Warner Bros. Pictures
DC Studios
HBO
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
The Matrix
Game of Thrones
South Park
Top Gun
Star Trek

This isn’t a media company anymore.

It’s an environment.

An ecosystem.

A machine capable of narrowing the boundaries of acceptable thought while convincing people they still live in a world of infinite choice.

That’s the trick.

You don’t eliminate dissent outright.

You absorb it.

Market it.

Monetize it.

Then slowly sand off its teeth until rebellion itself becomes another product available for $14.99 a month plus ads.