Sekulow

Logan Sekulow: Welcome to Sekulow. Let's get right into it. You may have seen the headline: is CNN up for sale? A brand-new lawsuit is currently dealing with the fact that Paramount has been trying to acquire and has agreed to buy Warner Brothers Discovery. There have been issues with whether you can monopolize media if you have both CBS News and something as powerful as CNN. Options have been discussed where Paramount said they would create a discussion board to ensure they operate completely independently. CNN has its own board, as does CBS News. As of late yesterday, Paramount floated the idea that maybe it's just time to offload CNN. CNN essentially becomes a bargaining chip, up for sale in many ways. We know this has been discussed before, but here we are once again. It shows where legacy media stands. MSNBC is now MS-now. NBC decided it wasn't worth the struggle, the controversy, or the hosts who were annoying them. They could say they were done there. The same thing is now potentially happening for CNN, which has been a part of the Turner corporation for a very long time, whether in the Warner Brothers Discovery version, HBO, or CNN. They are all together. It's one of the flagship brands controlled here. When you also own DC Comics, the Warner Brothers catalog, and all of this, is it once again like NBC saying they have a lot of great properties that bring in 100% of not only America but the world? MSNBC was the one thing keeping them tied into some sort of extreme partisanship. Maybe CNN is that for Paramount. We're going to take your calls on this. 1-800-684-3110. It's really no surprise to me that they would do this. Will, maybe we can break down what the actual case is and what the lawsuit is.
Will: Surprise, surprise, California led a lawsuit with eleven other states in an antitrust lawsuit. They are going after this merger. It's twelve states in total that are going after the potential purchase of Paramount Skydance purchasing Warner Brothers Discovery. Part of the hangup there is that CBS News is already owned by Paramount, much to the chagrin of many in the liberal media. We've seen all that with Scott Pelley and all the issues at 60 Minutes with Bari Weiss being the editor-in-chief of CBS News. If they were to buy Warner Brothers Discovery, they would also own CNN. This antitrust lawsuit is led by California and Attorney General Rob Bonta. It says that it would create a media behemoth able to raise prices and reduce competition in film and television markets. Therefore, this merger must be blocked. Paramount is saying that if the lawsuit is dropped, maybe they'll just sell off CNN. They can have their liberal media project, and Paramount can continue on. It shows how little value CNN may be to them in this entire deal.
Logan Sekulow: In the grand scheme of things, you're talking about a brand that actually has a lot of worth. I would hope whoever potentially becomes a new owner of CNN can take it back to what it once was. Did it always have more of a liberal bias? Maybe you could say it did, even from the early days with Ted Turner. At least it was breaking new ground. They still have the best international coverage in terms of footprint around the world. I still think there's legacy value there. But compared to what else is in that Warner Brothers Discovery catalog for Paramount—at a time where Paramount is trying to get out potentially of Hollywood and make their way right here to Tennessee. We all knew it 20 years ago; Hollywood is waking up right now. 1-800-684-3110. We are also celebrating Know Your Rights Week right now. We want you to be a part of the family. Go to ACLJ.org, make a donation today, and have it doubled. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are taking your calls and comments about the current state of media. We do this show very differently than we did for 30 years. For decades it was a radio show on terrestrial radio exclusively. Then the bubble-up of television happened, and we were able to go and do a weekly show on TV. Then the weekly TV show saw the creation of live streaming. You had something like Facebook Live and Periscope, which eventually got absorbed by X. Now you've had YouTube really become one of the strongest places for our broadcasts as well as Rumble. At this point, we have seen media shift. You've seen podcasts grow. You've seen broadcasts change and move. What you haven't seen, though they've attempted to do it many times, is CNN really be able to keep their stranglehold on American news coverage and politics. You have seen breakouts. You have obviously seen Fox News and MSNBC, which took more extreme points of view. MSNBC becomes MS-now because NBC decided they no longer want the stain of MSNBC with them anymore. They have all this other great family property now that appeals to everyone, but they still have this one really strange left-wing propaganda machine. They get rid of it. You have now the same moment. Paramount is trying to buy Warner Brothers Discovery, which is the parent company of so many different brands, one of which is CNN. They're saying it's probably not worth the few billion dollars that would be considered the brand of CNN. It's a legacy brand that meant a lot to a lot of people. It meant a lot to me, as someone who grew up in Atlanta and watched the rise of cable news. It was brilliant. It was genius. Did it help us long-term? Who knows. Maybe not to our mental state, but it did change the world. Now we see a moment where it is so insignificant that you have a group saying—because Paramount originally was going to have a board to ensure that CNN was independent. They still may, by the way. CNN would remain independent from CBS News. CBS News has taken a lot of heat recently when they have gone through their complete reshift and rebrand. Now you have a moment where CNN would be under the same umbrella, and they're saying it may not even be worth our time anymore.
Will: Here's the reality of this in this negotiation that is going on because of a lawsuit filed by twelve states. This is Paramount trying to ensure that this is a large deal. This is a $110 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers Discovery. So it's a big deal that these states are trying to block the business deal from going forward. I'm sure these negotiations would be described by CNN as fiery but mostly peaceful. But when you get down to it, you're looking at whether or not Paramount is going even to think that—and one, if the states will budge on this. This is an antitrust suit, which means that the states like California and the eleven others are saying you're creating a monopoly. They are afraid that the real monopoly in the media will be broken up, and that is the liberal monopoly that has had a stranglehold on the media for decades.
Logan Sekulow: It's actually pretty interesting because terrestrial radio has been, and even satellite radio by the way, has been largely controlled by the conservative audience. They are the audience who listens. Even the podcasts, if you think about who's really in the top podcast world, there's a few outliers there. Then you have news media television. CNN, though not the best in ratings, has actually had typically better ad sales options because you have more liberal groups willing to put money behind that than they would a Fox News. Especially when Fox maybe had the Tucker Carlsons and a little bit more of the hard-edged people at the time. You've had this sort of split where you've had a control over that cable news option, and CNN is the name brand. Fox has overtaken it significantly in numbers, not even close. But you still have that name brand that a lot of people are saying you all need to buy it. Look, if I felt there was something to buy and I could get enough people together, it would be something to consider because I do believe in that brand. The reason they're selling is not because it's worth a bunch of money to them. It is because it is a failing part of the business. It's a part of the business that's always been incredibly expensive to run and, over the last 15 years, incredibly divisive.
Will: Once again, this is a sale that they're saying it may be. What would it really turn into? Is CNN a property that is really desirable to be spun off at this point? I was looking through at some of even just the bad reporting that CNN has done over the last decade. Remember how hard they pushed the Russia collusion narrative. But you forget of how many of those stories they end up having to retract. They were always trying to get out first and get the scoop, and they were having to retract them, whether it be getting dates wrong and so creating a false narrative. You think of those students at Covington Catholic that they ended up having to pay an undisclosed sum of money because they were trying to make them into these villains on TV when they were there with their school trip to DC. CNN had to settle a lawsuit with them because of how their treatment was. To as recently as we think about the international coverage, and you had that made-for-TV moment of rescuing that Syrian hostage that ended up being one of Assad's intelligence officers. They have lost all of their integrity when it comes to being a journalistic outlet, even if they had that bias. Even if they had that liberal slant, which we've all just become so accustomed to in the media. CBS has been a fresh breath of fresh air, not because it's conservative per se. Bari Weiss isn't a conservative. She got ousted from the New York Times. Now she may be more favorable to conservatives now because of what happened to her, but she was ousted from the New York Times because she was willing to print in the opinion section the voices of conservatives. If you want to talk about a monopoly, it is the ideological monopoly that the left has on our media. That is one thing that we fight back here by trying to tell the truth, by going through facts, even when it's uncomfortable sometimes to our audience that may not like some of the truth and the facts. Yeah, we may be conservatives, but we aren't so ideologically captured like the mainstream media has been for so long that we're not willing to admit when things are as they appear. That is not what CNN has done. That's not what MS-now has done. And that is why their ratings continue to plummet and also why it's probably not that valuable compared to the larger deal to someone like Paramount to have that as a trophy. Because really, are you just buying a brand that is so tarnished at this point that it's not even really worth it? Is it going in the garage sale bin of Paramount at this point? That's the questions it raises for me.
Logan Sekulow: I would hope that historically you could reboot something like CNN and have a real valid player. I would honestly kind of say that News Nation is sort of what CNN once was. Now again, they are playing on a much smaller scale, let's just be honest. They have hosts that are conservative, they have hosts that are liberal, they have hosts that are somewhere in between. And the ones that are more liberal are certainly not to the extreme nature of a lot of the hosts and a lot of the talent that came out. Now look, remember they went through a lot of stuff though too. They went through all of the Don Lemon situation where they had all of the controversy that's been surrounded. So going through Warner Brothers, you've got to think about how big these organizations truly are. Not only their back catalog, but you're talking about HBO, you're talking about TNT, TBS, the sports, all the sports deals that they have. So much of this isn't reliant on having CNN as part of the portfolio. Now look, again, would I hope just based on historical that you'd be able to build something bigger? And look, they've gone through a lot of changes themselves. Warner Brothers has had to end a lot of their existing—there's a reason they're up for sale to begin with. I see a lot of people in the chat; some people are saying they need to just disappear 100% go away. I don't see that happening. I think it's too big of a legacy brand to just completely disappear. What I think you'll see is a big reshift in what it is. Let's go—we got a minute and a half. Let's go take Jeff real quick in North Carolina. Go ahead, Jeff.
Jeff: Hey guys. Just curious if this were to be allowed to go through, and would they allow the sale to someone like say Elon Musk? Would that be allowed?
Will: Here's what would be interesting, Jeff. Would they allow—I could see someone like the Attorney General of California trying to file an antitrust suit there or find some other way to block that sale. Here's the problem: it's not really that they want to break up what they see as a monopoly. They're using the legal structure of the United States antitrust laws to try and stop what they are calling a business monopoly. But in reality, they're trying to maintain the ideological monopoly that they benefit from, that the Attorney General of California himself benefits from, that his governor Gavin Newsom benefits from and is about to benefit from in the coming years.
Logan Sekulow: When we get back, I'm going to shift gears here. You've got to hear about some of the important work going on at the ACLJ. This is all good, fun, we can chat about it. Does where CNN end up really matter in the grand scheme of things to you? Probably not. I understand that. It's a fun conversation piece to have, let's talk it out. But there's important work happening all over the world that the ACLJ is a part of. I don't ever want to make you miss out on letting you know and giving you the big updates. Some of these come inside America, some outside of America. We're going to bring CeeCee Heil in here for the big update in the next segment. Don't go anywhere. Look, if you thought this was a fun conversation, next segment is an important one. We'll be back in just a minute. Support the work of ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Do it today, have your gift doubled. We'll be back with CeeCee. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I told you we'd be talking about some of the important work of the ACLJ in this segment. We'll get back to the other topics. We'll have some more fun here, but I think it's important. The ACLJ has launched a new petition. You may remember the case about Pastor Shao that was happening in China many years ago at this point. A pastor who really got in some hot water. Now after many years, we have a pretty big update, but we still need your help.
CeeCee Heil: We really do need the help. So I'll just remind you of Pastor Shao's case. Back in 2017, Pastor Shao had been doing missionary work. He's actually a green card holder for the United States, a permanent lawful resident of the United States. Married to his wife from North Carolina, both his sons are in North Carolina. He did work in the United States, pastored some churches, but also did continue to do missionary work in China. He was actually commended by the Chinese government for his work there with children and humanitarian work. In 2017 he was working in Burma, which is right on the Chinese-Burma border. Because of the crackdown on religious work, he was targeted as he was coming across the border back into China. He was arrested and served seven years. He served seven years of a sentence, the whole entire time. He was released in 2024 after serving the seven years. Then China enforced an administrative law. This administrative law says that if you were in prison for a border-crossing crime, they can withhold issuing you a Chinese passport for up to six months to up to three years. Actually, he was released March 5, 2024. Six months into it in September, China could have given him his passport at that time, September of 2024. But they've continued to withhold it. Well, just this year, Pastor Shao was diagnosed with stage four cancer. He is desperate to get back to his family. He has a brand-new grandson that he has never met. While he was in prison, his youngest son got married. He's missed out on so much of his family's life. Now he is struggling with stage four cancer, and he needs to get back to the United States to get the treatment that he needs and to be reunited with his family. China can absolutely do that under Article 14 of the Passport Law, which is the administrative law where they're withholding his passport. They can actually give him his passport, and he can come home immediately. We saw when President Trump talked to President Xi for Pastor Jin, who was not an LPR, he was not a green card holder, but President Xi has indicated that he does have some compassion in this and that he is willing to see the humanitarian efforts and situation. He let Pastor Jin come home, and Pastor Jin had not even served his sentence. We are hopeful that we can push for Pastor Shao to now come home. We are going to ask President Trump, we are going to ask Secretary Rubio to help us in this endeavor to get Pastor Shao home. We're hopeful that it will happen.
Logan Sekulow: There's a way for the ACLJ members and supporters to get involved in that. We do feel like these are important times, and now it's a life-or-death scenario. This is somebody who is suffering, who is sick, who just wants to be able to meet his grandchildren. The ACLJ team has been working hard on this for nearly a decade. But now is a way you can engage. I encourage you; we do have a petition right now. This is something we can present to President Trump, we can present to the administration and say look, all these Americans are behind this. Help us out. Of course, it's not the President's decision, but we do know when they put pressure, it can happen. We've seen it happen. We've seen it happen in real-time. We even saw it in the Obama administration when they would help out with cases like this. It's not like it's specifically only a Republican or a Democrat issue. This is a bipartisan issue where people could come together and say we need to help our Americans and really our American families at this point because you have this family that has been here their whole life who just want this to happen. Again, someone who's been dedicated to his faith. Of course, there's a situation like this that would happen. Served seven years in prison, now can't leave. We know China could do this, and they really probably just need someone to push them a little bit.
Will: That's right. If you go to ACLJ.org right now, you'll see that this petition is on the homepage. It's right to the right of your screen. It says "Free Christian Pastor John Shao." We're at 325,000 signatures on this, actually 325,531. We're trying to at least get to 350,000. If you could join that today, that would mean so much for the ACLJ team who's been working on this for almost a decade, but to the Shao family and to Pastor Shao himself. We know also that much of this work has been even when he was in prison because it is dealing with China. It's keeping him alive. It is making sure that he is not forgotten about in those prison systems, making sure the government at levels can still bring this up. But we know also that the prayer of the members of the ACLJ meant a lot and did a lot to sustain this pastor while he's in prison. We always talk about how you can support. Sign the petitions. How you can give to the ACLJ during these matching months. But also, CeeCee, prayer is so important. We saw that in this case. There's also some things that we have that people can get involved with to use the power of prayer to uphold our country.
CeeCee Heil: Absolutely. Prayer is the foundational weapon that we have at the ACLJ, and I know our supporters know that as well. We are also working with—you're talking about prayer—we are also working with the Nehemiah Alliance, which is a 52-day prayer initiative. We're asking every Christian in the United States to join up at NA52.org to join up and you're saying I commit to praying for 52 days for my family, for my community, for my state, for my nation. Literally following Nehemiah's plan of rebuilding our walls in 52 days. I think we would all agree that the walls, the spiritual walls of the United States have fallen, and we need to rebuild those. So it's just NA52.org. You sign up, and it's a commitment to pray for 52 days. It starts sundown September 10th and ends November 1st, right before the midterm elections, which are so critical. Every one of those 52 days, the ACLJ team's put together prayers where you can pray along and there will be one prayer that everybody will be praying as well. We're asking for a commitment to pray and fast for our nation.
Logan Sekulow: It's been a great group that we have been happy to be associated with. If you look at other people who are involved as well, you can get involved. It's pretty easy to remember the dates too. September 10th, obviously September 11th is the 25th anniversary of September 11th this year. Then you're talking about heading up to the midterm. You can kind of put that in your head as when you're going to start and when it would go through. I think it's a pretty remarkable thing they're trying to get going, and we're happy to be partnering with them. As CeeCee said, NA52.org. We appreciate anyone who wants to get involved in that or the work of the ACLJ in general. You just heard what we're dealing with on the individual level and you know what we deal with worldwide. We have CeeCee's team and an incredible legal team that is out there working. Of course, we have the media operation here. All of it happens because you support. We've only got 55 seconds in this first half-hour. Some of you lose us here. We talk about the current state of media. Where is the current state of terrestrial radio? We're trying to all figure that out each and every day. We still get a lot of calls. A lot of your calls in from terrestrial radio. Is that still how you get your media? I'd like to know from you. 1-800-684-3110. Do you ever turn on CNN? Do you ever turn on any of these outlets? Maybe you do. Maybe you've moved to podcasts. Maybe you're watching on YouTube. What's your primary source? Give me a call. 1-800-684-3110. Sign that petition at ACLJ.org. While you're there, support the work. We are in Know Your Rights Week. Donations are doubled. You need to join us right now. We're here because you are here with us as well. Go to ACLJ.org or scan the QR code. Have your gift doubled. We'll be right back in less than a minute.