to the editor: Netflix's decision to capitulate to unmistakable political and economic pressure by abandoning its bid for Warner Bros. raises some surprising practical questions about the future of independence in America's powerful entertainment industry. Paramount Skydance, with its revised bid, outbid Netflix and won the broader media war (“Netflix withdraws from Warner Bros. auction, Paramount will claim the prize” February 26).
Paramount Chairman David Ellison and his billionaire father, who has been cultivating his relationship with the president, have already taken concrete steps to influence news coverage with a rightward shift at CBS, which the company acquired last year. For example, Paramount recently installed Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News. Weiss quickly lost the trust of “60 Minutes” viewers after removing a segment exposing the administration's decision to deport people to, as CBS called it“brutal and tortuous” prison conditions in the CECOT of El Salvador. The segment would eventually be published, but not before intense public backlash.
Paramount's revised offer will pave the way for it to control CNN if it survives scrutiny from federal regulators and antitrust laws. The consolidation of these media entities means that Paramount would eventually own CNN and CBS, allowing it to tilt news coverage to enhance its own media power. It's not a stretch to imagine that, after investigations by U.S. and European regulators are resolved, CNN will look much more like Fox News or OAN, both of which clearly serve a conservative agenda.
Paramount's candidacy leaves viewers with fewer options to find independent, balanced and credible fact-based reporting and instead potentially subjects them to more state television at the expense of keeping the current administration and its enablers accountable for their decisions.
Autocrats around the world couldn't be happier with America's dysfunction.
Anthony Arnaud, Laguna Niguel
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to the editor: Can anyone explain the feeling of Paramount paying? $110 billion for Warner Bros. when all the studios continually complain that they don't have the money to adequately pay their writers, actors, directors and craftsmen?
Rick Siegel, Woodland Hills
