A lot happened in the land of mainstream news in 2025, from canceled shows to rebrands, acquisitions, mergers, and rightward shifts. But the Fourth Estate is still alive, even though trust in traditional media reached a record low of 28% this year. If anything, claims about legacy media’s demise are often exaggerated. Outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and CBS may have lost some credibility (and consumers) over the years, but they still have the power to shape consequential narratives that disrupt the political system and shape our culture. Still, mainstream landscape is shifting, and the left’s hold on these once-dominant institutions might be weakening. Here’s a look at some of the biggest changes in 2025.
Media Makeover
Perhaps the biggest story in media this year began when Skydance Media and Paramount Global merged in an $8 billion deal that handed control of CBS News to Skydance cofounder David Ellison. Soon after, Ellison purchased The Free Press for around $150 million, a digital media company founded by former New York Times writer Bari Weiss, now the editor-in-chief at CBS. Many people perceived the addition of Weiss as a move to shift the network right, which may hold some truth since the network is apparently aiming to veer toward the center of the political spectrum. Hence, one of the ten principles Weiss insisted staffers must follow was to ensure their journalism “holds both American political parties to equal scrutiny.”
An example of how the new CBS will operate was on full display when Weiss recently spiked a 60 Minutes segment about deportations to El Salvador’s CECOT prison. The backlash was immediate. Many people claimed the Trump administration influenced her to table the story. She told staffers in a memo that she wanted comments from the White House included in the story. The video got leaked and went viral, leading to countless hackneyed assessments of Weiss’ decision.
Much of the story was “based on the word of an illegal immigrant with no stated independent verification of his key claims,” said Sharyl Attkisson, a former anchor at CBS, in a lengthy article published on her Substack. “It’s akin to taking the word of an alleged murderer that he’s innocent and a good guy who’s being unfairly persecuted for no reason.” In short, the segment met the requirements of the old CBS, but it didn’t meet the new standards.
Winds of Change
While Paramount was waiting for FCC approval to merge with Skydance, it settled Trump’s $16 million lawsuit against its subsidiary CBS for misleading edits to a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris during her 2024 presidential campaign. A couple of weeks after the settlement, it canceled Stephen Colbert’s late-night show, effective in May 2026. Some said Ellison pushed Paramount to do both. Maybe he did, but Colbert’s show was reportedly losing $40 million annually. Perhaps delivering nightly monologues to a niche audience who swoons over verbal attacks against Trump affected his ratings. Ending the show was seemingly just smart business. As for the lawsuit, maybe Paramount and its then-future owner thought a court battle wasn’t worth the headache and the financial drain. Why complicate matters?
When the Laughter Ends
Remember all the drama in September when Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show on ABC was suspended for a few days after he said Charlie Kirk’s killer was undoubtedly right-wing despite evidence to the contrary? Two days after the monologue, during an interview on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast, FCC chairman Brendan Carr threatened punitive action against ABC and its affiliates if Kimmel was not reprimanded. Hours later, the comic’s show was pulled off the air. Left-leaning journalists quickly blamed Trump and Carr, claiming they were imperiling free speech. But Kimmel saying Kirk’s killer was part of the “MAGA gang” was blatantly false, potentially violating FCC rules. Besides, all he had to do was make some apologies, set the record straight, and not spread false information. Maybe the White House did play a role in the decision to suspend him, but it seems more likely that the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, wasn’t in the mood to endure a boycott and thus chose to remedy the situation.
New Look, Same Bias
Earlier this year, Comcast decided to split its NBCUniversal division into two distinct corporations, leading executives to change the name of MSNBC to MS NOW to “avoid any potential confusion” between the now-separated NBC News. The name change went into effect in November, displaying a new logo that attempts to resemble an American flag. With MSNBC’s total audience down 34% from 2024, according to Nielsen, one wonders whether spending around $20 million to swap out a few letters was worthwhile.
All in all, it seems unlikely that any of this will benefit the network. Why would it? MS NOW’s new slogan tells people nothing has changed: “Same Mission. New Name.” It’s still determined to present the “facts” in its usual one-sided fashion, though bias is probably the least of its worries. Nearly every news outlet, right and left, is biased in some way. Many people don’t like hearing their favored party being criticized and will often stop getting their political information from any outlet that shows a hint of animosity toward their team. Media organizations know this. It’s how so many get captured by their audiences and develop blind spots in their own reporting.
Fox News Outdoes Them All
The bigger problem for MS NOW and other news networks is that more people just aren’t getting their news from traditional sources anymore, especially television. Gen Z and younger Millennials mostly learn about current events and politics through social media and podcasts. Some people appear tired of the news overall. It seems the only cable network still thriving is Fox News, which rose by 18% compared to 2024, making 2025 its highest-rated non-election year in history. This might be because Fox learned a long time ago that people don’t just want to hear the news – they want to be entertained. Notice how some left-leaning networks are starting to mimic Fox News’ The Five, adding roundtable discussions to their nightly lineups, with a token conservative commentator to ignite debate. Conflict sells. Name changes get people talking, but that’s about it.
Hostile Takeover
It would be remiss not to mention how Paramount Skydance recently hijacked a deal Netflix was pursuing to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. Ellison’s father, Larry, is reportedly leading the deal. Mr. Ellison is also the founder of Oracle, one of the companies that just reached a joint agreement with ByteDance for ownership of TikTok’s US operations. Netflix only wants half of Warner Bros.; Paramount’s $108 billion hostile bid is for the entirety, including CNN. Dave Ellison has reportedly already told the president that he would make “sweeping changes” to the network if his takeover succeeds. Meanwhile, Trump and Larry have supposedly discussed ousting some anchors, too, specifically Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar.
The big question is whether the Ellisons might actually save these networks from further decline. CBS saw an uptick in viewers since Paramount merged with Skydance, and its audience numbers increased by 3% leading up to Thanksgiving. That could be a positive sign for its new owners. But what happens if Paramount doubles its power in Hollywood and the news world while being involved with TikTok in 2026? Maybe we’ll see more news outlets publishing the truth instead of pushing sensationalism for views. Yeah, that seems pretty far-fetched.
