With Netflix refusing to up their offer, Paramount Skydance is poised to take over Warner Bros. Discovery in a $110 billion dollar deal. In our latest episode of Comic Shoot, we go over the weird weaving of connections revolving around this takeover and why recent events in the Middle East poise to undo the financing of it.
If the purchase goes through, Paramount would own DC Comics, Wonder Comics, DC Entertainment, and DC Studios, and all the the intellectual property that comes with it and far more as well as publishing Milestone Media.
We’ve been skeptical, outright hostile, towards the takeover for multiple reasons including consolidation is often bad for consumers, the impact on limiting opportunities for creators, the layoffs that will occur, and the most important, Paramount’s consolidation of the news media and it’s willingness to shape and censor its news reporting due to political expediency as opposed to actual reporting.
Today’s comments by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is yet another example of why this takeover should be opposed by elected officials in the United States as well as Europe (US regulatory officials controlled by Trump won’t oppose it).
Hegseth commented about CNN’s coverage of the Iran War exclaiming, “that the ‘sooner’ Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison “takes over that network, the better.”
Fake news from CNN reports that the Trump administration underestimated the Iran war’s impact on the Strait of Hormuz. Patently ridiculous, of course. For decades, Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This is always what they do, hold the strait hostage.
CNN doesn’t think we thought of that. It’s a fundamentally unserious report. The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.
Hegseth was a former “news” host at rival network Fox.
While Ellison has said that CNN will maintain its editorial independence, that has not happened in the takeover of CBS by Ellison. Bari Weiss was appointed to oversee the news division hiring numerous conservative reporters, squashing negative reporting about the Trump administration, and a conservative think tank leader was appointed the ombudsman of CBS News.
Ellison has also stated he plans to “retool the network’s editorial strategy to serve a more politically “diverse” audience,” which doesn’t sound like editorial independence.
While we haven’t seen an ideological push in the entertainment divisions yet, there’s always a chance we can see them come more into alignment with the outlook of the Ellisons.
In other news, the Teamsters have called on the Department of Justice to stop the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.
Union leaders have filed a report with the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division outlining their concerns with the merger. What’s particularly interesting is Teamster general president Sean O’Brien is a labor ally of President Trump. Trump is also close with Paramount CEO David Ellison.
The Teamsters are concerned over job loss due to the merger and decreased competition as well as protection for domestic production and labor standards. They had previously raised concerns during the Paramount-Skydance merger and received no commitments during that.
The Writers Guild of America also is opposing the deal stating it’ll have a detrimental effect on writers.
