Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-10-08 Wednesday

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

Democracy Now! Wednesday, October 8, 2025

From New York, this is Democracy Now. We have a lot of things that we're going to eliminate and permanently eliminate. You know, one of the things that we have is some advantage, you could say, But because of the shutdown, which I think they made a big mistake, we're able to take out billions and billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse. As the government shutdown enters its second week, the Trump administration's threatening not to pay furloughed federal workers as shortages of air traffic controllers are leading to flight delays across the country. We'll speak to Democratic Congress member Roe Kana about the shutdown and has pushed to secure the full release of the Jeffrey. Epstein Files will also talk to Congressmember elect Adelita Ghalva of Arizona. Two weeks ago, she won a special election, but House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to swear

her in. She says it's because of the Epstein Files. A lot of talk about me being the 218 signer for the discharge petition for the Epstein Files, which I will do as soon as I'm sworn in. The timing is very suspect. Then we look at the growing media empire of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison and his son David, who heads the newly formed Paramount Skydance. David Ellison has just installed Barry Weiss as the new head of CBS News and what's been described as a right-wing takeover of the network. Then stripped for parts, American journalism on the brink. A new PBS documentary looks at how hedge funds are.

plundering newspapers. Newspapers are not just any other business. They're the only private industry specifically named in the Bill of Rights. History will not judge us kindly. If one day we wake up to realize we failed to protect our community's right to know and in turn our very democracy.

All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Israeli forces have killed eight Palestinians across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to Gaza's health ministry. At least 118 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since Friday when Trump called on Israel to halt its strikes. This is Ibrahim Dib, a displaced Palestinian from Jabalya. This is a genocide, a humanitarian extermination. We are suffering during this current war for, from poverty, famine, displacement, and all types of things that discussed human beings. You look at people now, those alive, are just like those dead, just because of war.

Meanwhile, Israel's far-right national security minister, Tamar Ben-Gavir, prayed at the Alaks Amas compound in Jerusalem today. Hamas condemned Ben-Gavir's visit is deliberately provocative. We are two years after the terrible massacre here on the Temple Mount, where there is victory. Every house in Gaza has a picture of the Temple Mount. And today, two years later, we are winning on the Temple Mount. We are the owners of the Temple Mount. Trump's special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner,

attending the Gaza ceasefire talks in Egypt today. Hamas and Israel are holding indirect negotiations based on President Trump's proposed 20-point plan. Qatar's Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin al-Darachman Altani, and Turkey's intelligence chief, Ibrahim Khalin, are also set to attend the talks. A senior Hamas official told Reuters Hamas negotiators in Israel have exchanged lists of prisoners and hostages who would be released if a ceasefire deal is reached.

Here's Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson, Majad al-Ansari. Now it's early to talk about any alternatives to any plan. We're talking about implementing this plan, Trump's plan, and applying this plan. All parties have agreed to this plan, so there are no obstacles now in terms of agreeing to the 20 points contained in President Trump's plan. The obstacles now are in implementation.

Israeli forces intercepted another Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla Tuesday. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Thousand Medleans to Gaza are operating a new fleet of 11 vessels of 150 people on board, including doctors, and initially said three boats were attacked 120 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza. Soon after all, boats were intercepted by Israel. In a statement, the group said, quote, sources, far indicate the unarmed crew aboard, including doctors, journalists, and elected officials have been abducted as well as the vital aid worth over $110,000 in medicines, respiratory

equipment, and nutritional supplies that were destined for Gaza's starving hospitals. Their whereabouts remain unknown, they said. The U.S. government shutdown has entered its eighth day. A draft memos reportedly circulating in the White House stating hundreds of thousands of workers who've been furloughed due to the government shutdown may not automatically receive. their back pay once the government reopens. The memo reportedly states Congress must approve new funding for the workers to get paid. Speaking to reporters yesterday, President Trump again threatened to use the shutdown to implement mass firings and cut public programs.

You know, one of the things that we have is some advantage, you could say, but because of the shutdown, which I think they made a big mistake, we're able to take out billions and billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse. And they've handed it, you know, or a silver problem. platter. And you know, Russell Vote, he's a serious person, very serious person. And he's sitting there and he's getting ready to cut things. Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration warned of staffing shortages at airports in Nashville, Boston, Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, and air traffic control centers in Atlanta, Houston, and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. At Burbank area in California airport, the air traffic control tower went unmanned for hours.

Union leaders for air traffic controllers and airport security screeners said the situation will worsen as the shutdown drags on. Hundreds of National Guard troops from Texas have arrived in Chicago as President Trump escalates his crackdown. Trump has labeled Chicago a war zone referring to the growing protests in opposition to his mass immigration raid. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson this week signed an executive order banning ICE agents from using city-owned property such as parking lots as staging grounds for agents. raids. The American Civil Liberties unions accusing the Trump administration of intentionally subjecting immigrants to inhumane conditions at the notorious Louisiana prison known as Angola, a former slave plantation that's recently been used to incarcerate immigrants and asylum seekers. A lawsuit filed by the ACLU Monday argues detainees are being

punished for crimes for a second time in violation of the double jeopardy clause because the government failed to deport them within six months of a removal order. In their petition, lawyer's right, quote, the anti-immigrant campaign under the guise of making America safe again does not remotely outweigh or justify indefinite detention in America's bloodiest prison without any of the rights afforded to criminal defendants, unquote. An investigation by Wired Magazines revealed ISIS bolstering its social media surveillance nationwide. Federal records show ISIS looking to hire more contractors in the state of Vermont to expand its so-called national Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center, located inside a largely unmarked property in Williston.

The Surveillance Center is similar to another ICE facility in Santa Ana, California. Contractors will reportedly have the ability to collect personal data from Facebook, Instagram, and X of immigrants targeted by ICE, as well as their family members, co-workers, and other associates. Earlier this year, ICE signed a multi-million dollar contract with the controversial surveillance tech giant Palantier to track and deport immigrants. That agreement was an extension of a contract with Palantir first signed by the Biden administration. Attorney General Pam Bondi testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday,

sparring with Democrats who accused her of doing President Trump's bidding and weaponizing the Justice Department to go after his opponents. She was also questioned on National Guard deployments and the Epstein files. Something else. There's been public reporting that, Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of President Trump with half-naked young women. Do you know if the FBI found those photographs in their search of Jeffrey Epstein's safe or premises or otherwise? Have you seen any such thing?

You know, Senator White House, you sit here and make salacious remarks once again trying to slander President Trump left and right when you're the one who was seen. taking money from one of Epstein's closest confidence, I believe. I could be wrong, correct me, Reid Hoffman, who was with Jeffrey Epstein on multiple occasions. And the senator sitting right next to you tried to block the flight logs from being released. Yet you're grilling me on President Trump and some photograph with Epstein. Come on. Former FBI director, James Come on. He's set to appear in federal court to be arraigned today is facing two criminal charges, which include making a false statement to Congress and the obstruction of a congressional proceeding.

Comey will be booked and fingerprinted at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia. Comes as an FBI agent was reportedly suspended after he refused to organize a perp walk of Comey into the courthouse before the media. The U.S. Supreme Court seemed poised in favor of removing Colorado's ban on LGBTQ-plus conversion therapy for minors during oral arguments. Tuesday, the challenge to Colorado's ban was brought forward by a Christian licensed counselor, Kay Lee Chiles, who argued the ban is a violation of her First Amendment rights to free speech and religion. Meanwhile, Colorado solicitor General Shannon Stevenson argued Colorado's law regulates conduct, not speech. Here's Stevenson in court

yesterday. People have been trying to do conversion therapy for 100 years with no record of success. There is no study, despite the fact that people tried to advance this practice that has ever shown that it has any chance of being efficacious. Political reports that Trump administration's considering options to privatize some $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt, officials with the Education Department and Treasury Department have reportedly been looking for private buyers to sell off a massive portion of the federal government student loan debt portfolio currently owed. by an estimated 45 million people in the United States.

The move would raise legal concerns and could further erode protections for borrow protections for borrowers as advocates continue to demand student loan cancellation. California Governor Gavin Newsom is signed in law aimed at combating anti-Semitism in schools a move many educators have warned

could lead to censorship and the targeting of pro-Palestine voices. Legislation will create an office of civil rights that will provide training to school staff to identify what they believe is anti-Semitism in a statement to the Associated Press. Teresa Montanio, with the California Faculty Association, said, quote, teacher discourse on Palestine or the genocide in Gaza will be police misrepresented and reported to the anti-Semitism coordinator, unquote.

Johnson and Johnson has been ordered to pay $966 million, close to a billion, to the family of a California woman who died of mesothelioma. A Los Angeles jury found Johnson and Johnson liable for the 2021 death of May Moore. She developed the rare cancer after years of using the company's talcum-based baby powder, which was contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen. This is the latest lawsuit amidst mounting litigation against Johnson and Johnson and comes just months after a federal judge rejected the company's attempt to settle all current. and future lawsuits involving its baby powder by filing for bankruptcy.

And Missouri's Attorney General subpoenaed Planned Parenthood in an effort to obtain medical and other confidential records of abortion patients. Planned Parenthood Great Plains, Plant Parenthood, Great Rivers, and the ACLU of Missouri have said in response, quote, politicians have no place in the exam room with patients and their medical providers, and that's why we'll keep fighting for patients and their rights, unquote. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report.

Coming up, we go to Capitol Hill. To speak with California Congressmember Rokana about the government shutdown, we'll also speak with the Congress member elect Grajava about why she hasn't been sworn in despite being elected weeks ago. Stay with us. He was her only child, her baby boy. She was his second daughter, her father's pride and joy. Somebody's mother, brother, best friend, sister lover. Maybe an A1 student running, hiding, taking cover.

The women gather crying tears that fill a million oceans. It doesn't matter where you're living. Gather crying, tears that fill a million oceans. People say, not in this neighborhood. It doesn't happen here. Our kids have everything. What do we have to fear? Women gather by Sweet Honey in the Rock, back in the days of our Democracy Now

Firehouse Studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report, I'm Amy Goodman in New York with Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. The U.S. government shutdowns entered its second week. A draft memo is circulating in the White House, stating hundreds of thousands of workers who've been furloughed due to the government shutdown may not automatically receive their pay once the government reopens. The memo reportedly claims Congress must approve new funding for the workers to get paid despite a 2019 law requiring

furloughed workers be paid. On Tuesday, Trump said some workers, quote, don't deserve to be taken care of. Meanwhile, the federal aviation administrations warned of staffing shortages at numerous airports. Union leaders for air traffic controllers and airport security screeners said the situation is due to get worse as the shutdown drags on. Democratic lawmakers are whole to their demands that Republicans agree to extend health care subsidies from the Affordable Care Act and reverse cuts to Medicaid. Earlier this week, Republican Congress member Marjorie Taylor Green made headlines for breaking with the GOP on health care costs.

She wrote online, quote, I'm going to go against everyone on this issue, because when the tax credits expire this year, my own adult children's insurance premiums. for 2026 are going to double, along with all the wonderful families and hardworking people in my district, she said. She went on to write, I'm absolutely disgusted that health insurance premiums will double if the tax credits expire this year. Unquote. We go now to Capitol Hill, where we're joined by Democratic Congressmember Rokana of California. Let's begin there. If you can go back to why there is a government shutdown and what the Democrats are demanding? First of all, Amy, the Republicans could open government today.

They have the majority in the Senate. They have the majority in the House. They have the presidency. They have passed and approved Trump's presidential appointees on a 51 vote in the Senate. They have approved Trump's judges on a 51 vote in the Senate. then why can't we have a 51-vote filibuster exception to keep government open? I have been consistent in advocating for the filibuster to be done away with. So the idea that they're blaming Democrats is absurd and no one believes it.

If they want democratic votes, then they need to make sure that health care premiums don't double for ordinary Americans. I mean, the reality is that the Affordable Care Act tax credits expire. And that's going to mean health care premiums for 24 million Americans literally double. And Roe, kind of this threat of President Trump to not pay furloughed workers. Could you talk about that, the legality of that? To not pay. I'm sorry, I didn't catch the phrase to not pay for. the threat of President Trump to possibly not pay the back pay for furloughed workers?

Oh, yes. Well, yes. I mean, look, Trump is threatening to lay off workers illegally. He's threatening not to pay, back pay for hardworking folks or keeping our airports running, who are in our parks and keeping our parks operational. This has never happened before in modern times in a shutdown. We always pay our troops. We always pay essential workers. And Trump is threatening both to lay them off illegally and not to pay them. By the way, Johnson hasn't called Congress in session to pay our troops.

And the reason he hasn't called Congress in session is because he's so afraid of swearing in Adelaida Grijalva, who's going to be on your program. And the reason is Adelaida Grijalva would be the 218 signature on my and Thomas Massey's discharge petition for the release of the Epstein files. So instead of paying our troops, instead of trying to vote to get government open, Johnson has just said, no votes, go home. We don't want to have anything to do with the Epstein files. Governor Kana, I want to go right now to another guest to join you from Tucson, Arizona,

Democrat Adelaidehira of Arizona, won a special election two weeks ago in Arizona's Seventh congressional district, she'll replace her late father, former Congress member Raul Gerhaelva in Congress. After she's sworn in, Grahalva is expected to become the 218th vote needed to force the Justice Department to release more of its files on the convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. On Tuesday, CNN's Manu Raju questioned House Speaker Mike Johnson about why she hasn't been sworn in. Earlier this year, you swore in two Republican members during a pro forma session. So why not swear in Adelaide Rialva, who was elected two weeks ago during a pro forma session? Does it have to do with her 218 signature on the district of the district?

No, it has nothing to do with that at all. We will swear her in when everybody gets back. It's a ceremonial duty. Look, we'll schedule it, I guess, as soon as she wants. As soon as she wants. So why don't we ask her? When does she want to be sworn in? We go now to Tucson to speak with Adelita Grajava, the Congress member elect from Arizona.

Well, you heard the House Speaker. What's the issue? Yesterday would have been a good day to get sworn in. Last week, when I was on the House floor, would have been a great time to get sworn in. The issue is that Speaker Johnson is just refusing to acknowledge the fact that I am waiting in the wings to get sworn in. And Arizonans need a voice in Congress, and I want to be able to advocate for the community here. He has set up – this speaker set a precedent in the last three specials to swear people in in under 24 hours from the time of their election. And now we're working on day 14 that I've been duly elected and ready to work.

So you've said that the first thing you're going to do is sign the discharge petition around the Epstein Foundation. Can you explain what that is and why this is important to you? Yeah. So much of the push during the presidential race had to do with transparency. And like, you know, we needed to get these Epstein files out. And then as soon as this administration is in office, all of a sudden there's, you know, there's nothing to see here. And the American people want to know what is in those files, who is implicated. and the victims need an opportunity for justice and a voice.

And they will be at the Capitol today, many of the victims talking about why it's important for them to be able to be seen and those that perpetrated crimes to have consequences. And Representative Elect, in this period when you're essentially in limbo here as a result of Johnson's decision, What have you been able to do to represent your constituents? I can't represent my constituents. I am an elect. I have no budget, no office, no staff. I have been as active as I can be in accepting offers to speak on the issue.

I have supported my colleagues, our Hispanic chamber, our mayor, from eight mayors from this community have all communicated to Speaker Johnson, like, swear her in. I was in D.C. ready to be sworn in. And now it seems that, you know, if you don't agree with the politics of Speaker Johnson, this is an incredibly scary precedent to set. If you don't agree with the politics of the Speaker, then they can keep you out of your duly elected office. I want to go to talk about precedent. Earlier this year, House Speaker Mike Johnson swore in Republican Congress members, Jimmy Petronus, and Randy Fine, a day after their election, even before official results were in. This is Florida Congress member Mario Diaz-Belard.

I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Florida, the Honorable Randy Fein, and the the gentleman from Florida, the Honorable Jimmy Petronus, be permitted to take the oath of office today. Their certificates of election have not arrived, but there is no contest and no question has been raised with regard to their elections, Mr. Speaker. Without objection. Well, representatives elect Fine and Petronus and members of the Florida delegation present themselves in the well. As all members rise and the representatives elect, we please raise your right hand. Even before the results were in, these two Florida Republican Congress members were sworn in. Let's bring Rokana back into this conversation.

Now, House Speaker Johnson is saying not until the shutdown is done. Have we ever seen a precedent for this? It's not about as much Adelita Garhava's rights. as her constituent's rights to be represented. And if you can talk about this discharge position, this discharge bill that would, that you have put forward with the Republican Congress member Massey and what it would mean. Well, it's really shameful.

I'm sorry that we've caused all this trouble for Adelaide Agrahova. She should just be sworn in. But the reality is Thomas Massey and I had a press conference schedule this week. The survivors were going to fly in. We all assumed that Alita was going to be sworn in on Tuesday was going to be the 218th signature. And what happened? Well, they didn't want that. They knew that if she was sworn in, that we would then trigger a vote.

You would have a vote within seven legislative days. The survivors were coming on the Capitol. That would get national attention again. And the reality is you'd probably have 50 to 60 Republicans on the floor vote for the full release of the files. So what has the Speaker done and the Republican leadership done? They have refused to swear in someone who won her election, basically 70% to 30%. They're denying a district in Arizona of representation, and they're not having us vote on anything in Congress, including paying our troops. Now, I just want to say Adelaide Gerova is extraordinary.

I serve with her father, Raul Grohava, who was one of the great progressives, and I can't wait to work with her when she does get sworn in. But she needs to get sworn in today, tomorrow. I mean, every day is breaking precedent and depriving people of who they voted for. And Adelaideh, Raqana mentioned your father. He was a longtime co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, our condolum. on his death earlier this year from complications from his cancer treatment. Could you talk some about his legacy and what he meant to you and to the people of Arizona,

especially the border region around Tucson? Well, my dad was an unapologetic, progressive, and voice for Southern Arizona. He was the conscience of many communities, indigenous migrant, working families, our environment, those that cannot speak for themselves, had a voice with my father. And so so much of what he did, the advocacy that he pushed for was about transparency and about standing up

for those who can't. And so we cannot, this administration is just ignoring the will of the people, in general, sending in troops into communities that are not asking for the assistance, just completely trampling, are rights. And this is something, this oath is incredibly important. And it's important for the community here to be able to have a voice. It's also important for me to be able to hire staff

and open a constituent office. So the question was, what are you doing? The frustration is, I can't do my job until Johnson does his job. I wanted to ask you, you mentioned the Trump administration's attack on immigrants across the country, what you're hoping to do in Congress to beat that back. And also his attempts to squash any diversity, equity, and inclusion, teachings in the public schools, you were on the Tucson Unified School District and the Pima County Board of Supervisors back when there were attempts to squash Mexican-American studies and bilingual curriculums in Arizona? Yes. So I was on the school board for 20 years. And during that time, we had a fight with our state superintendent of public instruction to eliminate Mexican-American studies. We had African-American studies, Native American studies. And I think it's important to be inclusive of our communities and our people's history and their contributions to the fabric of this nation. And so the attacks on DEM,

I mean, I never thought that I would be in this twilight zone where diversity, equity, and inclusion were said as bad words. It is what opens the doors of opportunity for many people like myself. And without fighters like my dad pushing to be, to have access to higher education at the University of Arizona during the Chicano movement, I would never have this opportunity. And so it's important for us, those of us that have been given the privilege and access to make sure that that door stays open for other people. And when you have states that are pushing English only, that are anti-immigrant, I mean, we saw a loss, a significant loss of students with people moving into other states once Arizona had made the statement through English-only laws that we were anti-immigrant. that sentiment is across our entire nation. I mean, I have Border Patrol that drive right up and down my way home, every mile marker sitting there waiting for what? Looking for who? People that look like me, that look like workers, that have an accent, and they are literally kidnapping people

off the streets. So what we are seeing play out on television is happening in real time. And as the the representative for this community that has three ports of entry with Mexico, it is critically important for me and our voice to be present when these conversations are happening and when solutions are being created to this problem that Trump and this Republican Party have exacerbated throughout our nation. Congressmember Rokana, what about these National Guard deployments and governors from Oregon to Illinois saying, that President Trump is breaking the law and bringing them in unsolicited. What role does Congress play in all of this?

They're unconstitutional, but they're also cruel. I mean, when you're looking at raids that are parading on the streets, half-naked children, when you have raids that are separating kids, snatching them away from their mothers, When you have the harassment of not just women and children, but American citizens, the American people have been horrified. And what we have to understand is that Trump is going to keep pushing the envelope. If we don't stand up, he may say, let's have ICE agents outside the polls before an election. This is an attempt to intimidate and harass people of color. in this country, people who are the children of immigrants in this country, and we need to

stand up. Justice Kavanaugh has said that it's okay to profile someone if they're Latino and if they're in a low-income occupation. Literally, he wrote that in an opinion. So this is a time where we need to be out there on the no-kings marches. If you've come out to a no-kings march, please bring someone else. The Democratic Party needs to be the leader of a democracy movement. We need to be more than just doing our votes and our jobs. We all need to participate in leading a movement to stand up for democracy and the dignity and rights of people who are seeing it violated. And Congressman Kahn, I wanted to ask you about the Trump administration's attacks on the press,

the multiple, multi-million dollar lawsuits that he has filed against various media organizations, the attempts to use the FCC to investigate some of the TV broadcast companies, your sense of what is happening to the media in America under this administration? It's been the largest assault on the freedom of the press in modern history. It's why independent media like yours is so much. so very important at this time. But you've not just had the attack on Jimmy Kimmel or the attack on left-wing groups who are quote-unquote anti-American or anti-capitalists that, according to the NPSM-7 memo that they have. You have a dangerous consolidation of the media. You have them literally

having rich billionaires buy-up CBS. You have them having rich billionaires buy-up TikTok, concerned about whether the TikTok algorithm had too much criticism of Israel and Netanyahu. I mean, anyone who read Chomsky about capital class controlling media often would say, well, is that really true? Well, look, Trump is trying to actually prove his thesis true. And it should be chilling to all Americans in terms of the corporate consolidation of the media to suppress viewpoints critical of our own government or foreign powers in the world. We all need to be standing up and speaking out for freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Democratic Congress member, Rokana, I want to thank you for being with us on Capitol Hill from Silicon Valley in California. And we want to thank Congress member elect Adelita Grajava of Arizona.

She won a special election last month, but has yet to be sworn in. She will be if House Speaker Johnson allows her to be the first Latina Congress member representing Arizona. Coming up, we look at the growing media empire billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison and his son David, who heads newly formed Paramount Skydance. David Ellison has just installed Barry Weiss as a new head of CBS News and what's been described as a right-wing takeover of the network. Stay with us. While their editor assures them

The means justifies the end Because we only hunt celebrities It's all a bit of fun But scouses never buy the sun While the parents of the missing girl cling Desperately to hope And a copper takes in proper payments in a thick brown envelope

And no one in the newsroom asks where's this headline from But scouses never buy the sun Never Buy the Sun By the Sun by Billy Bragg performing in our Democracy Now studio Yeah, he's British but he could be talking about the Baltimore Sun and others

We're going to talk about media ownership now This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Monday marked the first day on the job for the newly installed editor-in-chief of CBS News, Barry Weiss, after she sold her right-wing digital media outlet, the free press, to CBS's parent company, Paramount Skydance, for an astounding $150 million. Weiss is a former New York Times opinion writer who resigned in 2020, founded the free press, which is backed by prominent Silicon Valley venture capital, and has been widely criticized for its commentary on Gaza, including a piece headlined the Gaza

famine myth, which questioned famine conditions in the besieged territory caused by Israel's assault and blockade. In her new role, Weiss will report to Trump ally, Paramount, CEO, David Ellison, who took control of Paramount through the merger with his company, Skydance Media. David is the son of one of the richest men in the world recently declared the richest for a little bit, billionaire Larry Ellison, executive chair of Oracle, who Trump has proposed to make part owner of TikTok. The Ellison family is also set to make a bid for CNN's parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery, which would also include owning, for example, HBO. This all comes after the parent company of CBS News agreed in June to settle a $20 billion lawsuit brought by Trump, who objected to how CBS's news is 60 Minutes edited an interview.

with Kamala Harris. Paramount Board Chair and controlling shareholder Sherry Redstone reportedly sought the settlement to ensure the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, approved Paramount's bid to merge with Skydance Media. CBS also canceled the late show with Stephen Colbert, starting next May, after Colbert called the settlement a big, fat bribe. From all on all of this, we're joined by David Cleon, columnist for the nation, contributing editor at Jewish Currents. His piece for The Guardian is headline disgruntled NYT journalist to anti-woke power grab. How far can Barry Weiss go? David, welcome to Democracy Now. Thanks for joining us from Brooklyn. Why don't you start off by laying out the Ellison Empire and then the significance of them installing Barry Weiss as head of CBS News? Well, thanks for having me. So Larry Ellison, who briefly at least was the richest person in the world in the last month or so, he was at least briefly ahead of Elon Musk.

His son, David Ellison, less is known about him, but he's a rising power in media. He founded Skydance, which is now merged with Paramount. Paramount, in addition to Paramount Hollywood Studios, owns CBS, obviously. It owns Viacom, which is Comedy Central and MTV. So it's a huge empire, and by all reports, Allison is currently looking to acquire Warner Brothers and Discovery, which would give him control of CNN and HBO. So we're talking about an unprecedented level of media consolidation by an unprecedented level of wealth.

Larry Ellison is a known Trump supporter. David Ellison is at least suspected to be, and both are known to be extremely fervent supporters of Israel. And David Ellison has gotten very close with Barry Weiss, who is very well known for being a fervent supporter of Israel, going back to her days at Columbia University 20 years ago, where she and I were both undergraduates at the same time, and where she gained a national reputation, even as an undergraduate, for campaigns she was running against Arab and Muslim professors there, who she and other students saw as too critical of Israel. And as ideologically motivated in the classroom. Barry has presented herself as a champion of free

speech, and I would say that her publication, the free press, claims to be centrally founded around free speech. But in reality, she has a 20-year history of suppressing speech that she finds objectionable, especially when it's speech championing the rights of Palestinians and criticizing the state of Israel. And the free press has been centrally involved in that. So, with her becoming not so much the formal head of CBS News as Ellison's kind of personal enforcer outside the normal chain of command within the organization, it remains to be seen what she'll actually do, but many people, including me, are concerned that she will enforce a right-leaning ideology on the whole network and probably particularly on Israel coverage,

where CBS has sometimes gone outside the bounds of what someone like Weiss would approve of, or for that matter, what Sherry Redstone, the previous owner had approved of. And could you talk about the free press? Most people around the country have never heard of it. Is it worth anywhere near $150 million that Skydance is paying for it? 150 million, I think almost anyone would agree, is a very, very steep valuation. The Free Press was founded as a substack called Common Sense by Barry Weiss and her wife, Nellie Bowles and her sister, Susie Weiss, in, I believe, 2021, the year after Weiss resigned

from the New York Times after the forced resignation of opinion editor James Bennett, which media-savvy people may recall was over an op-ed that Bennett published by Senator Tom Cotton, calling for military force against Black Lives Matter demonstrators. Weiss left in a public resignation letter saying that the Times was censorious and a hostile work environment, and she created the common sense initially as a place to sort of run letters by, you know, cruntled private school parents about their kids' curriculums and stuff like that. But very quickly, it attracted support from venture capitalists like Mark Andreessen and David Sachs in Silicon Valley, who are open Trump supporters. And it was rebranded as the free press. And it attracted a staff of, I believe, something like 40 or 50 people now. So that's a real publication. publicly, it's supposed to have around 170,000 paid subscribers and nearly 10 times that many total

subscribers. So, you know, almost 90% of them are free, which is a pretty typical ratio, I think, for substack-based media. And there are other substack-based media companies like Zitea or the bulwark that are very ideologically different from Weiss's. But the free press has been, I think, incredibly successful. but 150 million valuation is something else. People have run the numbers, and it's highly unlikely that the site's organic subscriber base could justify that.

And given that the Ellisons have, for all intents and purposes, infinite money, and $150 million is pocket change for them. It's widely understood, I think, or should be widely understood, that this is an ideological power play by them. This is about turning Barry Weiss into, it's about elevating her political ideology over one of the most important and storied news brands in the United States. And, of course, you're talking about a news organization that had such luminaries of the media as Walter Cronkite, Mike Wallace, Edward R. Murrell, Fred Friendly. And what's your sense of what the reporters in CBS are thinking these days? Well, there have been numerous reports always anonymously sourced in which longtime CBS News Insiders express panic and alarm. The general perception, some of it is ideological.

Some of them think that, you know, Weiss is a propagandist, which she certainly is for Israel and for the right. But there's also concerns about her expertise or her experience. You know, Weiss is 41 years old, same age as me. She has never worked in TV news before. She has never managed anything on that scale. Granted, as I said, she won't technically be managing. At least that's the impression I get from the reporting. She'll be picking select battles and interfering with the day-to-day work, which is run by a longtime media exact name, Tom Zabrowski. But I think that there's a lot of panic at CBS. Now, a lot of that panic is also driven by, you know, the fact that there's a new owner, there's a merger,

and basically everyone expects mass layoffs. TV news in general is in decline and mostly depends on older audiences, and CBS is no exception. So I think savvy industry observers think that Weiss has maybe been brought on to manage the decline of CBS, I would think by purging voices that she and Ellison would disapprove of and maybe bringing in voices they would approve of, but overall reducing its value as a news gathering organization. A CBS correspondent. A CBS correspondent told the Independent, the fact that we don't have money to pay journalists, but we have money to pay Barry Weiss between $100,200 million is indicative of

what the Ellison's true goal here is, and it's not journalism. And this goes to David Klan, if you can wrap up with this. The significance of the role of Larry Ellison, this decades-long history of the Republican Party, frequented Trump's Mar-A-Lago for dinners, has met Trump in the Oval Office, also an ally of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu donating money to Israel's military through the nonprofit friends of the Israel Defense Forces. Can you summer? the significance of this as we wrap? Well, I think that it has to be taken as of a piece with a general right-wing consolidation over media right now.

I actually should – we would be remiss not to mention that Ellison and some of the venture capitalists who have backed Weiss, like Andresen, are part of an effort to take over TikTok in the United States. TikTok, of course, is a Chinese social media platform that is wildly popular with younger Americans and has been particularly important for promoting pro-Palestinian viewpoints and is perceived by Israel and by many people in the U.S. government as being responsible for why so many young Americans are turning against Israel. Of course, while that may be true to an extent, the real reason Americans are turning

against Israel is because Israel is committing a genocide and is pretty unapologetic about doing so. But I think there's a hope from Netanyahu to Trump's people to Allison and Weiss that by controlling TikTok in the United States, they can probably skew the algorithm more toward Israeli Hasbrist propaganda. And I'm skeptical that will work, at least for changing entrenched opinions about Israel. But I think it's clearly part of the play here. We want to thank you, David Cleon, for being with us, calmness for the nation. contributing editor at Jewish Currents. His piece for The Guardian published last month will link to disgruntled NYT journalist to anti-woke power grab how far can Barry Weiss go.

This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. For more in the state of American journalism, we look now at a new documentary streaming and airing on PBS called Stripped for Parts, American Journalism on the brink. The film looks at how hedge funds like Alden Global Capital have gutted newsrooms across the country. Alden recently made headlines when Dallas Morning News shareholders rejected its takeover bid and voted instead to be acquired by the Hearst Corporation. This is the trailer of Strip for Parts. Tomorrow will be the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News.

The last decade and a half, we've seen 1,800 newspapers disappear. The Denver Post isn't dying. The Denver Post is being murdered. The media is a food chain which would fall apart without local newspapers. We've been hearing for the last decade or so that newspapers are dying, they're dinosaurs. Because of the internet, there's this bigger problem. There's an industry that's out to destroy newspapers and doing it deliberately. Distressed investing is called.

vulture investing for a reason. They're feeding on a carcass of a company. They want to get in, make some money, and get out. What hedge funds will tell you is this is creative destruction in capitalism. We got bought by this mysterious company. Nobody even knew who they were. It was called Alden Global Capital and it was a New York hedge fund. I said, you're an investigative reporter. Why don't you dig into Alden and just write about who they are and what they're doing because People don't know. I work for the bad guys. Now, when did that happen?

When did I start working with the bad guys? The Denver Post has launched a revolt against its owner, New York-based hedge fund, all the global capital. A guy named Chuck Plunkett just decided he'd had enough. It's either stand up and speak up now or write your own obituary in two or three years. It's one of the most courageous things I've ever witnessed in a 40-year career in journalism. We know from copious research that when a community loses a newspaper, Voter participation goes down.

Corruption goes up. There is misinformation out there. Communities are misinformed and uninformed, and that's really dangerous. Somebody's got to cover this story to argue for the sanctity of facts and truth. There are times in your life when you are thrust into a situation where are you going to stand up and risk everything or are you going to back down? Newspapers are not just any other business. They're the only private industry specifically named. in the Bill of Rights. History will not judge us kindly. If one day we wake up to realize we failed

to protect our community's right to know and in turn our very democracy. And that last voice, Julie Reynolds, a key researcher on Alden Global Capital and what's happened to newspapers in this country. That's the trailer for Strip for Parts, American Journalism on the Brink, streaming at pbs.org through the end of the year. We're joined right now by Rick Goldsmith. He is the producer and director of this documentary. That is chilling. He is in Oakland, California.

He was also director of the Oscar-nominated documentary, The Most Dangerous Man in America, Daniel Ellsberg, and the Pentagon Papers. Rick, this is a powerful documentary. You point out that since 2005, 2,500 newspapers have closed in this country. that's more than 120 newspapers on average closing a year. Talk about what's happening and its connection you focus on Alden Global Capital. Well, I think it's a counterpoint to what your previous story was on the national scale. This is on the local scale of journalism with

Alden Global Capital and other hedge funds having scarfed up newspapers. And what they do is they make money by selling off the assets and laying off the staff. And it's really crippling to local communities. And I think they, you know, they knew that in Dallas. And that's one of the reasons why they rejected the bid by Alden Global Capital. Because you, you know, number one, you don't have local ownership. And number two, you have people who are interested solely in making money off of the newspapers and not in serving the community and doing good journalism. And could you talk about the relationship, the real estate relationship of these attempts by groups like Alden Capital? For instance, Alden recently sold off the printing plant and

also the offices of the New York Daily News for $90 million while refusing to bargain with the union members there. Exactly right. This is, it's called distressed asset investing. That is their MO. And what that means is they buy these distressed industries. They might be in bankruptcy for a song. That's number one.

Number two is they sell off the biggest assets, which tend to be the newsrooms, which tend to be centrally located in downtown. and the printing presses, as you mentioned. And then number three is they cut back the staff as far as they can. And now they've got it three ways, cheap, you know, a cheap property and low expenses, and they can make money and keep it going for a while. But the journalism is what suffers.

I want to go to another clip from your documentary, strip for parts, that features journalist Julie Reynolds describing her investigation of Alden Global Capital. I really need visuals to help me understand the structure of the companies and which one owns which. It is so complex. These two guys here are the co-founders of Alden,

Randall Smith and Heath Freeman here, very private individuals, especially Randall Smith. Randall Smith is many things. But he's not a man who's ever shown an interest in protecting journalism. The founder of Alden Global Capital is known on Wall Street as the grandfather of vulture capitalism. He seeks out distressed businesses and plunders them. Randall Smith is one of the early pioneers of this whole vulture hedge fund strategy. He has defined this ruthless industry.

In the 1980s, Wall Street was in the midst of a mergers and acquisitions frenzy. Greed is good. Investment bankers and ambitious stock traders were looking for new ways to take advantage of the increasingly complex financing of corporate America. Many were looking to find the hot new companies, the winners. But a young, up-and-coming trader named Drandall Smith wondered, what if there was more money to be made from the losers? Rick Goldsmith, the inspiration for you to make this film.

You talk about Bill Moyers, a legendary journalist who passed away in June at the age of 91 and his involvement in getting you to do this? Yeah, Bill and I were talking about, I wanted to do a documentary on him, which he wasn't having anyone. Who would want to see a documentary of me? well, I think millions probably would have. But we decided we'd look for another issue to do a film on, and he called me one day and had seen this article about this hedge fund scarfing up newspapers and the journalists who were

fighting back. And I think that was the main thing for me that hooked me because these journalists were taking it upon themselves to not only look out for their own interests and through, through their guild, through their union, the news guild, but also to educate the public about what was happening in your community with your newspapers, because everybody was noticing that the newspapers were getting thinner and thinner every month, but why was that happening? And that's what Julie Reynolds and others were uncovering, and out of that, this film was born, and we followed it for five years. Rick, we just have 30 seconds. You really focus on Denver.

You focus on Baltimore Sun. You focus on Oakland, where you are. The big picture here, how desperate do you feel about the loss of local media serving a democratic society? Well, I think there's a plus and a minus. The minus is that this is happening all over the country, More than half the daily newspapers are either owned or controlled by hedge funds. So that's the minus. The plus is that they're in every community. There are startups. There are new, innovative ways to partner with, say, public radio and local news, digital news organizations.

Rick, we're going to have to leave it there. And people can get the rest of it in this really good documentation. entry, strip for parts, American journalism on the brink now airing and streaming on PBS, check your local stations. That does it for a show. I'll be in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on October 17th. Check out our website, DemocracyNow.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.