Hi Friends,

The Trump-aligned Paramount Skydance company (which owns CBS, Comedy Central and much more) is moving to become the biggest and most powerful media corporation in our country’s history through its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (which owns CNN, HBO and much more). But California Attorney General Rob Bonta could block this merger . . . if he acts promptly.

Please urge Attorney General Bonta to block the merger. He has the power under the Clayton Antitrust Act. (Paramount is headquartered in California; Warner has major operations in our state.)

Last year, Paramount became Paramount Skydance through a merger that quickly won Trump administration’s approval -- and was enabled by:

1. Paramount management’s interference in the content of “60 Minutes,” prompting the resignations of the program’s executive producer and the CBS News president.
2. Paramount’s payment of $16 million to Trump -- a thinly disguised bribe -- to settle a Trump lawsuit against “60 Minutes” that CBS could not possibly have lost in court.
3. Paramount’s announcement that it was terminating Stephen Colbert’s show, a termination that will take effect in less than 12 weeks.                 

Take two minutes to encourage Attorney General Bonta to block Paramount’s acquisition of Warner on the grounds that it is anticompetitive to have all this economic power in the hands of one corporation.

Paramount Skydance is owned and controlled by the Trump-allied and AIPAC-allied Ellison family. Besides paying the $16 million to Trump -- which Colbert denounced on his show as a “big fat bribe” -- Trump and others asserted that the new Ellison-owned Paramount Skydance had also promised to provide millions of dollars-worth of public service announcements (PSAs) for Trump’s causes.

After Elon Musk and Trump had a squabble, it was said that no billionaire was closer to Trump than right-winger Larry Ellison, the 81-year-old Oracle cofounder. Under the Ellisons, CBS News has already made major changes and become quite Trump-friendly. With Trump’s help, Larry Ellison and Oracle then became major investors in the U.S.-spinoff of TikTok.

And now the Ellisons’ Paramount Skydance is getting close to acquiring Warner. According to news reports, Trump and Ellison have already discussed which anchors at Warner-owned CNN would be fired after Paramount takes over.

Investigative reporter/comedian John Oliver at HBO, another Warner employee, would also be in jeopardy. 

Please urge Attorney General Bonta not to allow Paramount Skydance to grow even more massive, giving it enormous market (and opinion-shaping) power.

The Clayton Antitrust Act, passed by Congress in 1914, empowers state attorneys general to block anticompetitive mergers.

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Thanks for all you do!

In Solidarity,
The RootsAction Team

Background:

>> The American Prospect: "States Can Block the Paramount-Warner Deal"

>> Common Dreams: "Colbert’s Termination Is a Win for Trump—and the Corporate Assault on Dissent"

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