On Monday, Paramount struck a deal that will pave the way for its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to reporting by multiple outlets.
The agreement will put an end to an antitrust lawsuit brought by 12 state attorneys general, led by Rob Bonta of California, that could have potentially blocked the $111 billion merger.
The deal will create an entertainment behemoth and will make David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison, one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. It will put CNN under the control of the same people who took over CBS News last year and have remade it to be more friendly to the White House. It will unite two of Hollywood’s oldest and biggest studios, Paramount and Warner Bros., three major streaming services, and more than fifty cable channels under the same corporate banner. The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger would almost certainly lead to thousands of job cuts as the companies cut redundancy in the executive ranks.
Paramount reportedly agreed to some concessions, including distributing 30 movies a year and appointing a board of nominally independent journalists to oversee CBS and CNN (the latter network was kicked out of the White House press pool just last week).
Bonta reportedly began to push for a settlement late last week, as Ellison threatened to move Paramount’s headquarters away from California, which has already seen a sharp decline in entertainment jobs in recent years (due in part to other mergers). More than 5,000 members of the industry signed an open letter opposing the merger.
“The AGs’ capitulation marks a new low,” said Jessica J. Gonzalez, co-CEO of Free Press, a media reform organization that played a key role in the #BlockTheMerger coalition. “It’s a sad day for all of us who have been opposing this merger because it will cut jobs and raise prices, all as it consolidates the media even more to enable authoritarians.
“Based on all reports, this weak deal contains nothing but unenforceable, empty Paramount promises. It abandons the thousands of creatives and workers who risked speaking out, and the tens of millions of consumers the attorneys general should be fighting for.”
The statement also noted that “consolidating the media in the hands of friendly oligarchs is right out of the authoritarian playbook. Americans across the political spectrum are fed up with corruption and consolidation, and billionaires calling all the shots while everyone else struggles. People won’t forget who stood up for them and who capitulated.”
Other California Democrats, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom, publicly pushed for a settlement.
According to the antitrust lawsuit that was filed in July, the merger would “extinguish competition between Paramount and Warner Bros. and inflict substantial harm on movie theatres, basic cable distributors, and, ultimately, audiences nationwide.”
At a press conference in front of the Hollywood sign in July, Bonta warned that “audiences on every sofa and in every movie seat would feel the impact of this unlawful merger.”
Connecticut attorney general William Tong, who was reportedly one of the last holdouts opposing the deal, issued a statement saying that the state had “led the fight to the bitter end to protect the editorial independence of CNN and CBS News.”
“Connecticut wanted and demanded full divestiture of CNN and CBS News. We wanted to save ethical and independent journalism and news. We fought aggressively for that remedy. I am deeply disappointed that we could not do more.”
Bonta’s office has not responded to a request for comment.
Meredith Blake is the culture columnist for The Contrarian
I'm really disappointed that Bonta and Newsom caved to the Ellison's empty threats. Corporate Democrats won't fight and so we'll get the Ellisons's financial backers, the Gulf Arab autocracies ,controlling CNN and CBS News.