No Kings of America — Or of Media Either

Why the Paramount-Warner merger is not a done deal: Publisher's Roundup 60

This weekend, millions of us gather to push back on Donald Trump and his enablers’ open attacks on American freedoms — including free markets and the free press. The latest power grab is being attempted even as we march: the proposed merger between entertainment and news behemoths Paramount Skydance and Warner Brothers Discovery. Trump and his administration appear hand-in-glove with father-and-son team David Ellison and Larry Ellison to push a deal that is a democracy disaster. Fortunately it is far from a sure thing, and you Contrarians can still help block it.

The mega-merger would allow the Ellisons to consolidate and control how Americans consume news and information to benefit Trump’s authoritarian agenda. Exhibit A: Last August, the Ellisons took control of Paramount, the home of CBS news, in a separate merger through their company Skydance — and immediately transformed CBS News’s coverage, with the network taking more fawning positions on Trump’s political program. There is little doubt that, should the Paramount-WB merger pass regulatory and legal scrutiny, the Ellisons will look to transform CNN — though they claim otherwise — as they did their network news empire. That is a deeply alarming prospect, particularly to champions of democratic rule who know that media consolidation is a time-honored authoritarian tactic.

The Ellison takeover of CBS News provides us with a painful picture of what a future CNN might become. As detailed in our Democracy Defenders Action letter with partners to Paramount’s board, the company’s handling of CBS News raised serious concerns about a steady erosion of editorial independence. That deterioration culminated in the elevation of Bari Weiss to a position of extraordinary influence over the network’s direction. Ratings are now in the toilet, but there is no sign of change, raising the question of whether the whole point was to destroy the storied CBS journalism operation as an independent overseer of government, including of Trump.

And it may be even worse for CNN, the news crown jewel of WBD. Reports indicate that David Ellison promised Trump that he would make “sweeping changes” to the network. This reportedly may include giving Weiss some control over CNN as well as CBS. It’s unsurprising that Trump administration officials have expressed vocal support for the Ellisons in their hostile takeover bid, as has been widely reported.

On Friday, FCC Chair Brendan Carr openly bragged that “President Trump took on the fake news media, and President Trump is winning,” including because “soon enough CNN will have new ownership.” And Trump himself allegedly has gone so far as to give Larry Ellison a “direct personal assurance” that Paramount would win the WB war, according to a recent lawsuit.

Don’t minimize the non-news harms of this fiasco either. The Ellisons would also control a huge market share of movies and television. The 20th century teaches us that those may be even more powerful tools for pushing pro-Trump propaganda.

Moreover, these kinds of concentrations of market power hurt consumers. Instead of Paramount and Warner competing in the marketplace, they would be one consolidated mass. Basic economics teaches us that would lead to higher prices and fewer choices for consumers. Rather than HBO Max and Paramount+ contending with each other to drive prices down, they can agree to hike them. The mashing together of big companies would likely lead to layoffs at the combined enterprises — another blow to working people.

To students of authoritarianism, this pattern is unmistakable. Twenty-first century strongmen consolidate power steadily, across institutions — government, business, media and culture — until dissent has nowhere left to stand. It is the playbook followed by Vladimir Putin in Russia, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey: centralize power, marginalize independent voices, and bring the information ecosystem to heel. They don’t care whether the crony capitalism they practice worsens economic conditions for average people in those countries. When Trump, his backers in politics, and his aligned corporate actors move to concentrate control over media and cultural production, they are not just reshaping markets; they are testing whether the same model can take hold here in the United States.

That is why the proposed merger is so dangerous. What’s at stake here is not simply another corporate combination, but rather a profound shift in who controls the production and distribution of news and entertainment in the United States. When a handful of firms dominate both creative output and the channels through which Americans understand the world, the risks aren’t just economic — they’re civic.

That is particularly problematic with this merger, as it would unite major studios, streaming platforms, and national news networks under a single, right-wing corporate umbrella — a new media giant that could easily convert CNN and its other properties into a new Fox News. A Trump-blessed, Ellison-controlled media empire would bring a narrowing of editorial autonomy when the country can least afford it.

In the face of all of that, we unfortunately have little expectation that the federal government will stop the deal. The Trump administration has retreated from serious, robust, and nonpartisan antitrust enforcement — likely, in this case, at the behest of the president himself. DOJ has sought more information about the transaction but that is probably a fig leaf in light of the pro-Ellison remarks by the President and other administration officials. Crossing Trump is hardly a recipe for career advancement in this administration.

That places the burden of protecting consumers from monopolies on the shoulders of the state attorneys general. Fortunately, the states have all the federal government’s legal tools, if not more. They can open investigations, compel documents, and, if necessary, go to court to block the transaction or impose meaningful conditions. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has already signaled that states are prepared to move independently of federal regulators. And they should. Courts have long recognized that mergers threatening to reduce competition, suppress wages, or degrade quality can and should be stopped before the damage is done. In a case of this magnitude — touching not just markets but also the infrastructure of democratic discourse — the argument for action is overwhelming.

This moral burden will place a major strain on the states. State attorneys general, unlike the federal government, suffer from resource constraints. Most have small antitrust departments, with only a few lawyers and experts to review key mergers — a process that can take months, depending on a deal’s complexity. This is why we have seen — and will likely continue to see — multi-state enforcement efforts, like the Live Nation-Ticketmaster litigation. And even these collaborative efforts come with high costs, as states must go toe-to-toe with companies willing to pour hundreds of millions into their legal defense. The states have notched some critical wins, but they still need help.

That’s where organizations like ours and the rest of the democracy movement come in. Outside advocacy can play a key role in shaping the political environment in which these cases unfold. That is especially true here, where fear of professional retaliation could mute voices within the industry itself. Civil society groups, journalists, creators, and even shareholders can help fill that silence by documenting the merger’s likely harms, supporting the costly litigation such a challenge would require, and making clear to the public that this deal is neither benign nor inevitable.

Other opposition is also beginning to emerge. The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors approved a motion to conduct a “comprehensive economic impact analysis” of the merger, which could be a disaster for the city. Across the Atlantic, the European Commission appeared to expand its investigation into the deal’s potential funding sources from the Middle East under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation. Brussels reportedly issued new requests for information from Paramount, demanding transparency into the various sovereign wealth funds backing the Ellison bid — specifically questioning whether capital from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates constitutes an unfair market distortion.

For all these reasons, the assumption that the merger is a fait accompli deserves to be challenged. And, Contrarians, we will continue to challenge it. That’s because the fight over this merger is, in the end, a fight over whether the American media and information systems remain pluralistic and independent of the government or whether they become further consolidated and more easily influenced by autocrats. That is not a question to be decided quietly — or by default. It needs to be litigated in the court of law and the real, full court of public opinion. Thanks to your paid subscriptions, we and our colleagues do both, through our democracy litigation and our democracy coverage. It’s the most unique bargain in American journalism.

As always, that brings me to the stellar work The Contrarian published this week, rounded up by my colleagues for you here:

Abdication of Governance

What Did Republicans Expect?

Jen Rubin had little patience this week for the private fretting of the party that empowered Trump. “Whether the Iran War ends this month or months from now, Republicans cannot escape responsibility for the massive expenditure of taxpayer dollars, loss of life, rise in energy costs, regional instability, and damage to alliances Trump has wrought.”

Governance by Ideological Whim Meets the Rule of Law

Jeff Nesbit wrote on the reckless abandon of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first year at the Department of Health and Human Services and the recent federal district court ruling that has halted his radical overhaul of the child vaccine schedule — a “procedural guillotine” damning in its assertion of incompetence and lost public trust.

Fundraising at a Predator’s Picnic

Ciera Stone reported on the shocking story of how a convicted child sex offender ascended the ranks of the North Carolina GOP — with the full knowledge and support of state-level leaders, including current U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley.

Misogyny & Resistance

Another Lesson from Dolores Huerta: The Patriarchy Has No Place in Social Justice

Maria L. Quintana wrote on the bright lights of the national farmworker’s movement undimmed by César Chávez. “Movements for civil rights and social justice are not immune to the patriarchy and all its violence. But every day, we work to root it out.”

Why Conspiracies and Propaganda Fuel Violent Extremism

Cynthia Miller-Idriss and Bill Braniff joined Jen to discuss the violent misogyny and anti-minority brainwashing still happening — even accelerating — online in the wake of the federal government gutting the departments built to stop it.

Attacks on Women Continue Unabated

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf wrote on the danger of normalizing the administration’s constant drumbeat of attacks on women’s health and rights, and updated us on the latest from across the country. “Attacks on women’s bodily autonomy haven’t stopped — they just stopped making the front page.”

The Smokescreen of War

When Intelligence Stops Judging, It Stops Mattering

Brian O’Neill analyzed how recent congressional hearings from Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and John Ratcliffe have revealed an intelligence system drifting from strategy to sycophancy. “When pressed on whether Iran posed an imminent threat to justify the U.S. attack on Iran, Gabbard responded that determining what constitutes an ‘imminent threat’ is the responsibility of the president.”

What Can We Believe About the Iran War?

Representative Jim Himes (D-CT) joined Jen to decode Trump’s mixed messaging on the possibility of a peace deal on the horizon — and just how much it would cost the United States to secure the Strait of Hormuz. “This is a war of many contradictions.”

Sports Spotlight

Trump Seems Intent on Tanking the World Cup

Shalise Manza Young wrote on our ratings-obsessed president’s ironic determination to ruin the most-watched sports event on the planet – with the minor complications of a war of choice in the Middle East, ICE’s reign of terror, and a travel ban. “How many fans will want to come here under these conditions?”

Death of the Cinderella Story

On this week’s Offsides, Pablo Torre joined Jen to discuss the WNBA’s landmark deal to raise salaries and the NCAA’s poaching problem. “The big win, really, for women’s sports writ large, is that this is not a charity. This is good business.”

Trump’s ‘Protection’ of the Army-Navy Game is an Ineffective Diversion

Carron J. Phillips wrote on more of Trump’s unwelcome sports-world meddling, this time the ignoble cause of “protecting” the Army-Navy game as an attempted distraction from American soldiers dying in Iran. “At this rate, Trump might as well mandate that Chick-fil-A can’t be sold on Sundays.”

Fighting Back

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week we saw opposition to ICE’s incursion at airports across the country, protests in Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, Georgia, Indiana, and more, and a lot of planning ahead for No Kings Day! For today and going forward, see Indivisible for more information, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org. We hope to see you out there!

MAGA is Afraid of Your Vote

Janai Nelson joined Jen to break down MAGA Republicans’ strategy to stop your vote — and how you can help protect it for yourself and your community. “We can all do something, and it doesn’t cost us anything to exercise those rights, but it will cost us our future if we don’t.”

Cartoons, Culture & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists covered chickening out (TACO Tuesday, Nick Anderson), doubling down (Meet the Press, RJ Matson), brute force (The Fog of War, Michael de Adder), brutish force (Regime Change Hydra, Michael de Adder), and more (Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling).

Days of Love and Rage

Anand Gopal joined Abraham Kenmore in conversation on Gopal’s book, Days of Love and Rage, which documents a remarkable experiment in self-governance at the start of the Syrian civil war. “We tend to think of democracy as something that happens once every two or four years for a few minutes when you go to the ballot box … [but] there are much more capacious visions of democracy.”

‘The Bachelorette’ Controversy is Nothing New for Reality TV

Meredith Blake wrote on the latest scandal to rock reality TV, joining a legacy of muck. “Bad behavior is an asset for aspiring reality stars, whether they’re a soft-swinging’ Mormon mom or a serially bankrupt real estate heir.”

Why Young People Can’t Get Enough of ‘Love Story’

Meredith also wrote on Gen Z’s new obsession with Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, whose press-shy mystique feels like a breath of fresh air to the TikTok set — even as the series introducing her “arguably couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Kennedy family.”