Jim Acosta Warns of 'Media Domination' by Billionaire Trump Friend Ellisons at Hearing on First Amendment
Source: MEDIAite
Mar 20th, 2026, 5:03 pm
Journalist Jim Acosta warned of “media domination” by the “MAGA-friendly” billionaire Ellison family at a Friday hearing in Los Angeles that also featured Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA).
“Here is the breaking news: the news is broken,” began Acosta in his testimony about the Trump administration’s alleged attacks on the First Amendment. Specifically, Acosta spoke of the pending merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery that he believed would threaten the objectivity of CNN.
“We may not be able to put the pieces back together again if the Paramount Warner Bros. Discovery merger goes through and puts my former home, CNN, under the control of the Ellison family,” Acosta said. “You see, the president of the United States Donald Trump has cracked the code on how to hurt the press in America. You may recall Trump and his team seized my press pass during his first term. What is happening now goes way beyond that.”
Acosta described Trump’s actions as “an assault on America and the free press,” saying that the “most powerful man in the world” was taking the United States “down the road of Putin or China-style…state-controlled media in this country, owned by the oligarchs in service to Trump and MAGA, all in the name of special treatment for the wealthiest Americans” and “at the expense of everyone else.”
Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/jim-acosta-warns-of-media-domination-by-billionaire-trump-friend-ellisons-at-hearing-on-first-amendment/