TLDR: The big media companies and social media companies are mostly owned and controlled by ultra wealthy members of society.
These media companies are entities that exist to serve the interests of their owners. They are tools used to spread information that benefits the people that own them.
“It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in the big club. By the way it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe, all day long beating you over the head in their media, telling you what to believe, what to think, and what to buy. The table is tilted, folks. The game is rigged.” -George Carlin, 2005
The following is an incomplete list of major media and social media companies, and their owners.
CNBC
CNBC is owned by Comcast.
Comcast is a publicly traded company, ticker CMCSA, market cap ~ $150 billion.
Brian Roberts is the chairman and CEO, with a net worth of approximately $2 billion.
Comcast is 88% owned by institutional holders.
- 9.5% owned by The Vanguard Group
- 7.7% owned by BlackRock Inc
The Wall Street Journal
Owned by News Corp. News Corp is a publicly traded company, ticker NWSA. Market cap ~ $16 billion.
News Corp is 39% owned by Rupert Murdoch and the Murdoch family. Rupert Murdoch has a net worth of $18 billion and according to Forbes is the 97th richest person in the world.
News Corp is a sister company to Fox Corporation (Fox News). The Murdochs are also the main owners of Fox Corporation.
Bloomberg News
Owned by Bloomberg L.P., a private company 88% owned by Michael Bloomberg.
Michael Bloomberg is the 7th richest person in the world with a net worth of $95 billion.
The New York Times
Owned by: The New York Times Company, a publicly traded company, ticker NYT. Market cap ~ $7 billion.
NYT is 92% owned by institutions.
- 9.6% owned by The Vanguard Group
- 8.5% owned by BlackRock
The Washington Post
On August 5, 2013, Bezos announced his purchase of The Washington Post for $250 million in cash. Jeff Bezos is the third richest person in the world with a net worth of $114 billion.
Reuters
Owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation --> $85 billion dollar (Canadian) market cap.
67% owned by The Woodbridge Company. The main person, David Thomson, has a net worth of $58 billion, the #21 richest person in the world.
Warner Bros. Discovery
Publicly traded company, stock ticker WBD, market cap ~ $25 billion.
CNN is one of the major media channels owned by WBD.
WBD ownership:
- 10% owned by The Vanguard Group
- 8% owned by Advance Publications
- 6.5% owned by BlackRock
- 5% owned by State Street Corporation
Facebook / Meta Platforms
Publicly traded company, market cap ~ $850 billion.
14% owned by Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg has a net worth of ~ $65 billion, and is currently the 16th richest person in the world.
X (formerly Twitter)
owned by X Corp which is owned by Elon Musk.
Elon Musk: Net worth $180 Billion, #2 richest person in the world.
On October 27, 2022, Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion.
Reddit is 30% owned by Advanced Publications, a private company owned by Newhouse Family.
Donald Newhouse has a net worth of $11 billion, the #161 richest person in the world.
Fidelity Investments also owns a ~ $700 million stake in the company.
Some of those financial institutions that own the media:
The Vanguard Group
Financial services company with $8 trillion assets under management.
The Vanguard group has an unusual ownership structure where “Vanguard is technically owned by its customers. As the company states, the fund shareholders own the funds, which in turn own Vanguard.”
CEO: Mortimer Buckley, net worth estimated around $50 million.
BlackRock Inc
Publicly traded company, ticker BLK, market cap ~ $100 billion. Has $8.5 trillion assets under management.
Run by: Larry Fink, net worth $1 billion.
Main holders:
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8.5% - The Vanguard Group
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6.5% - Blackrock
Fidelity Investments
Assets under management: $11.7 Trillion
owned by:
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49% Abigail Johnson,
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51% current and former employees
Abigail Johnson: net worth $25 billion, #60 richest person.
State Street Corporation
$3.6 trillion assets under management.
-
12% owned by Vanguard
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8.3% owned by BlackRock
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4.85% owned by State Street
One more quote from George Carlin:
“You don’t need a formal conspiracy when interests converge. These people went to the same universities and fraternities. They’re on the same boards of directors. They’re in the same country clubs. They have like interests. They don’t need to call a meeting. They know what’s good for them. And they’re getting it.”
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Love this topic! Great idea for a discussion about how the places that are often thought to be areas for open speech can be anything but.
Where did you source these numbers?
Right, I probably should have included sources in the original post.
Ownership info for publicly traded companies from yahoo finance:
- CNBC / Comcast - CMCSA ownership
- The New York Times - NYT ownership
- CNN / Warner Bros. Discovery - WBD ownership
- BlackRock Inc - BLK ownership
- State Street Corporation - STT ownership
- Thomson Reuters Corporation - TRI ownership
Other numbers were mostly provided from Wikipedia and a few web searches.
Wikipedia:
- CNBC, owned by Comcast
- The Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corp, main owners Murdoch family. Sister company to News Corp is Fox Corporation
- Bloomberg News division of Bloomberg L.P., 88% owned by Michael Bloomberg
- The Washington Post, owned by Nash Holdings, owned by Jeff Bezos.
- Reuters, owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation, 67% owned by The Woodbridge Company, owned by the Thomson Family, chaired by David Thomson
- Meta Platforms
- Reddit, 30% owned by Advance Publications, owned by the Donald Newhouse of the Newhouse family
- Fidelity Investments, 49% owned by Abigail Johnson
Net worth info was mostly from Forbes rich list.
Thank you Jersan!
this makes me think of the scene in Manufacturing Consent where they scroll a list of the 2 dozen or so at-the-time major media corporations responsible for the large majority of news dissemination in the west. I think that list has been consolidated now to about half a dozen corporations.
Lfggg
