In the second Trump administration, the battle for our democracy has taken us to some unexpected places across the hundreds of legal cases and matters that you Contrarians have helped fund through your paid subscriptions. Saving democracy isn’t just about politics. Culture matters as much and maybe even more, and this week saw remarkable developments in two of the matters in what I think of as our Contrarian cultural litigation portfolio.
Let’s start with the fight over the naming of the Kennedy Center. You will recall that our successful litigation to get Donald Trump’s name off that building was powered by you, Contrarians. Now he and his handpicked cronies on the board are defying the court’s decision by again saying they will add Trump’s name to the center. An Aug. 13 resolution “calls for (1) the inscription ‘Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump’ to be placed under President Kennedy’s name on the Center’s façade, (2) the inscription ‘Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund’ to be placed under the first inscription, and (3) the site of the Kennedy Center to be named the ‘President Donald J. Trump Plaza.’”
Congress created the Kennedy Center to honor John F. Kennedy — and no one else. And, with your support, Contrarians, we are going to keep it that way. Representing Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), my Democracy Defenders colleagues and our Washington Litigation group co-counsel immediately filed papers seeking an emergency stay, and the judge has just ordered a hearing for Thursday.
We already won on this issue, and we are confident of success again. That is, of course, thanks to you. Because the Contrarian is independent, all profits go to help support pro-democracy litigation like this. If you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one to help us win the Kennedy Center case and so many others.
Another ongoing cultural matter your paid subscriptions are helping to support is blocking the Paramount-Warner merger being pushed by Trump cronies Larry and David Ellison. This week proved that California Attorney General Rob Bonta is not flinching, including in a remarkable and principled series of public comments. He and his AG colleagues should hang tough in talks with Paramount reportedly taking place next week — and every indication is that they will. Our democracy is on the line.
Let’s review how we got here. The Ellisons are seeking a mega mashup of two of the biggest players spanning movies and cable. They shamelessly cozied up to Trump before and during the approval process. DOJ antitrust experts reportedly had concerns with the deal, as well they should: It is bad for audiences and artists alike, and will cost thousands of jobs. Those are precisely the kind of harms from over-consolidation that antitrust law exists to prevent. Nevertheless, Trump DOJ higher-ups approved it.
That’s where you come in, Contrarians. Thanks to the support provided by your paid subscriptions, my pro-democracy colleagues and I helped lead the way in building the #BlockTheMerger movement.
Together with wonderful partners, including the Committee for the First Amendment, we launched #BlockTheMerger. Thousands of entertainment and news industry leaders responded, from movie stars and news anchors to key grips and makeup artists. They called on state AGs to step in and enforce antitrust laws. Twelve AG heroes, led by Bonta, answered by filing suit and winning preliminary relief, delaying the merger pending a trial next year. The success the states have already had with Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín reflects the strength of their case.
Rocked by all this, the Ellisons are striking back with the tools at their disposal: money, special interest influence, and their fellow fat cats. Allied billionaires like Ari Emanuel, whose TKO has a $7.7 billion deal with Paramount, argue that the lawsuit is rooted in partisan politics and is an affront to the First Amendment. But that’s sophistry. As Bonta’s office put it, this is a “clear-cut antitrust case.” The crux of the case is economic: who gets richer, who gets laid off, and whether a handful of plutocrats will be able to consolidate even more power over America’s entertainment and news industries.
Contrary to the propaganda that the Ellisons and their self-interested billionaire buddies like Emanuel are pushing, the merger would undoubtedly lead to further job losses. This would be devastating for an industry that has already lost roughly one-third of its workforce, about 42,000 jobs, over the past five years. A new analysis from Los Angeles County says that the merger could put at risk more than 10,000 jobs and result in $1.26 billion in lost wages for workers. And Ellison has already demonstrated that jobs are secondary to his desire to seize power for himself, after he threatened to rip the company out of California — even though Paramount and Warner have been a core part of that state for over a century — if the AGs refuses to negotiate, a move Bonta described as “blackmail.”
The money versus the many: It’s a terrible look for the Ellisons. Perhaps that is why in recent days, a nonprofit group called Neighbors for Strong Communities launched a campaign targeting Californians with messages supporting the merger and urging them to pressure Bonta to drop the lawsuit. Incorporated this summer, the group has no board, founders, and no staff, and it refuses to disclose its funders. As our colleagues at The Committee for the First Amendment succinctly put it, “These are classic hallmarks of a corporate-backed astroturf campaign designed to manufacture the appearance of grassroots opposition.”
I wouldn’t make too much of Friday’s news that the AGs and Paramount are meeting next week. Meetings between plaintiffs and defendants are routine across the life of a case. Though it is true that other California politicians — including Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass — have been urging a meeting, both have backtracked on any suggestion that they unconditionally support a weak settlement. Moreover, Bonta remains steadfast in his commitment to pursuing the legal challenge. When asked about the broader Ellison effort to pressure him, Bonta dismissed the attempts as “desperate” and said that “it seems like they are grasping at straws.” And here’s what he had to say in response to a request for comment on reports of his upcoming meeting with Paramount:
As I’ve said before, generally for all of my cases, I prefer to resolve disputes in the boardroom, not the courtroom. As I’ve also said, if the opposing party in litigation wants to meet in good faith to make a sincere effort to resolve the case, we’ll meet. And as I have further said, any potential discussions about the Paramount-Warner Brothers merger will be unproductive absent robust structural remedies on the table that address our concerns. As it stands today, the proposed Warner Bros./Paramount merger will mean higher costs, less competition, lower wages, job cuts, and fewer movies and TV shows. This merger violates long-standing federal antitrust law, and we are committed to enforcing the law.
Your paid subscriptions, Contrarians, help pay for these matters and more than 300 others. It’s the best bargain in journalism, because you also get all the great news and opinion from The Contrarian, as you can see with the best of the week’s coverage below.
Elections & What Comes Next
Democrats Are Left with Two Primary Lessons
Jennifer Rubin wrote on what we should take away from a primary season that has seen no small amount of infighting between left and center Democrats and what it all says about our chances this fall and beyond. “It’s time to come together — and for others to plan to get out of the way.”
Four Things Democrats Can Do with a Majority in Congress
Tom Malinowski laid out an agenda for empowered Democrats to hit the ground running. “The mission … will be to keep things from getting worse and to restore checks and balances, so that the long process of renewal can begin.”
Dems Are Assembling a Big Tent in Florida
On the podcast this week, meet two candidates with real momentum to turn Florida blue. Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon’s $975k campaign beat a $16.2 million campaign to secure the U.S. Senate nomination, while David Jolly secured the gubernatorial nomination in a landslide. How did they do it? “Voters tell us what they want.”
ICE Watch
No One Can Keep ICE’s Escalating Abuses out of the News
Ciera Stone wrote on how, despite Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s best efforts to operate under the radar, ICE’s brutality is too plain to be ignored. “If the Trump administration really wants ICE out of the headlines, it needs to stop these Gestapo-style operations and heed demands for oversight, accountability, and reform. Or, maybe, just retire the agency altogether.”
Detention Deaths and Shock Gloves: ICE Violence Continues to Escalate
Tim Dickinson spoke with Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, about the new executive order on birthright citizenship, how ICE’s human rights abuses continue to escalate with recent deaths at the Delaney Detention Center in New Jersey, and much more.
Big Tech Trouble
Trump Just Gave Corporations a License to Hack
Brian O’Neill considered a new policy under which private companies can conduct cyber operations against foreign actors on the government’s behalf — opening up a dangerous new regulatory can of worms. “What happens when something designed for exceptional cases becomes routine?”
Reuben Steiger wrote on the outdated internet safety laws — drafted largely before the year 2000 — that no longer stand up to protecting children in an era in which a majority of teens report regular interaction with an AI “companion.” “The transition from [a bot] providing emotional support to encouraging self-harm can happen all too quickly.”
Memo to Democrats: Your Anti-Big Tech Majority Is There for the Taking
Ami Fields-Meyer wrote on the popular backlash against data centers as a golden opportunity for Democrats to become standard-bearers in demanding the Big Tech regulation most Americans want. “Moments when the public suddenly sees and feels the consequences of unchecked corporate power are rare.”
Fighting Back
March on Washington; Stop ICE Shock Gloves
In our latest Calls to Action: get ready for the next March on Washington, happening August 28; join the ACLU in Minnesota to protest the state surveillance of activists; contact your representatives to oppose ICE’s heinous new electric-shock gloves; stand up for better conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln; and more ways to get involved.
The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement
This week, we saw protests in Washington, Mississippi, Maine, Nevada, Ohio, and elsewhere, with Americans standing up for Big Bend, Saying No to Flock, and much more. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf gave us some much-needed glimmers of good news in the fight to protect reproductive rights — which, she says, looks a lot like the swell in activism before Roe v. Wade. “Nearly 50 years later, the Dobbs decision brought a devastating reversal. But it simultaneously ushered in a moment akin to 1972 — the opportunity to reimagine bodily autonomy and build something better.”
Cartoons, Culture, & Fun Stuff
This week, our cartoonists took on confirmed cowards (The Negotiating Table, Nick Anderson), toxic lovers (Tunnel of Love, Nick Anderson), brutal hypocrites (The New Hands-On Policy, Nick Anderson; Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling), and rank amateurs (At the Big Kids’ Table, Michael de Adder).
On the Ground with Doctors in Gaza
Meredith Blake wrote on the documentary American Doctor, which takes viewers inside a beleaguered hospital in Gaza where physicians from the United States treat Palestinians under harrowing conditions. Says one doctor: “I approach it as an American, as a humanitarian, as a doctor, as a witness.”
Like the Trump Administration, Adam Silver’s NBA Wants You to Disregard Journalism
Carron J. Phillips wrote on the NBA’s farcical recent investigation of Clippers star Kawhi Leonard, which both found no evidence of wrongdoing and managed to involve attacking multiple credible journalists.
Norm, thanks for all the legal resistance you are leading. Proud to support this work.
So grateful for you and Jen!