Read: The Final Film Studio?

Why the WB/Paramount Merger is Bad for Hollywood, Audiences and America

Listen to an audio recording of this blog as read by the author

For decades, America’s Right Wing has attacked "Hollywood" because it knows that whoever controls our stories controls our culture.

And the authoritarian strategy of controlling media to reshape public reality is one of the oldest tools in the fascist playbook. Let’s review…

Nazi Germany built an entire propaganda machine around what people read, watched, and believed. The Soviet Union tightly controlled film, journalism, and artistic expression because its leaders knew its people wouldn’t miss what it couldn’t see.

Film is powerful.

A movie can change expectations.

A documentary can expose a truth.

A TV show can lead millions to empathize with someone they were taught to fear or hate.

That is why controlling entertainment, news, and historical film archives is such a powerful political goal of the Right.

And nobody is more determined to create and control a false narrative – a false reality – than Donald J. Trump.

Which Brings Us to Today

The pending Warner Bros./Paramount merger is bad news. Very bad.

Not just because, as in all consolidations, it will cost jobs. (Trump's billionaire buddy David Ellison fired hundreds of Paramount employees in November 2025 when he took over, and reportedly replaced many of them with AI.)

Not just because it narrows even further the number of gatekeepers in Hollywood.

It is a potential concentration of cultural power under the control of a Trump flunky at exactly the moment when our media should be questioning our government more vigorously than ever.

Because when fewer people control more of the media landscape, it becomes easier for ideology to shape what gets seen, what gets funded, and what (and who) quietly disappears.

The entertainment industry has never been perfect. It’s driven by greed and bull shit. It has produced endless sequels, lousy remakes, and films that leave you wondering, “How the hell did that ever get green-lit?”

But with a variety of major studios, there’s a bigger variety of stories told – and some of those stories are worthwhile. Important. Sometimes, even art.

Stories that challenge power.

Stories about women fighting for dignity and equality. About Black communities. Immigrants. LGBTQ+. Outsiders, rebels, and anyone who dared challenge the status quo.

Finding those occasional diamonds amongst Hollywood’s coal is the magic of this business.

But that magic depends on our industry having many avenues. Many viewpoints. It depends on, yes, that dirty word, DIVERSITY!

As media ownership becomes concentrated under right-wing control, the image of our country that Hollywood reflects back to us can and will be strictly controlled.

Ask Stephen Colbert.

History Itself Will Be Changed

It’s not just entertainment content at jeopardy. Documentaries, and the people who make them, will also be in peril, for a variety of reasons.

First, let’s talk about the film and video archives many documentarians rely upon to illustrate their stories.

Film and video archives are evidence of our lives: documentaries, interviews, journalism, historical records, the stories that explain where we came from and how we got here. Whoever controls those archives controls the "memory" of our nation and society.

There are five major sources for archival footage. The news departments at legacy networks ABC, NBC, CBS, plus PBS and CNN.

Alas, once-noble CBS News is already controlled (and bastardized) by Trump sycophants. Public Broadcasting’s budget has been gutted by the Trump administration. And with the merger, Ellison’s Paramount will soon own and control CNN.

With a majority of our cultural archive controlled by people trying to change the very soul and history of America, they don’t need to destroy the evidence.

They only need to deny access. [add how they will add cost]

And then, they block you from seeing the few documentaries that do manage to get made.

How?

There are a small number of major buyers of documentary films. HBO and CNN have long been among the most important homes for investigative films, political documentaries, and journalism.

And if Ellison gets his hands on Warner Bros., he will also control both of those Warner Bros.-owned companies (as well as DC Comics, but that’s another blog).

What happens when a documentary critical of the administration becomes too embarrassing, or too politically inconvenient?

That filmmaker simply won’t find a buyer.

The project is called “too niche.” The timing is “wrong.” The audience is “too limited.”

And the story disappears.

And all of those HBO Max & CNN documentaries about January 6, Q-Anon, and Trump’s crimes that already exist? I'm pretty sure they will vanish from their streaming platforms.

This is how modern censorship works.

Not by banning the story.

By making up excuses why the story never reaches the public.

And Then There is CNN

If Paramount ultimately gains control of CNN, the concern is not merely another corporate reshuffling.

It is the possibility that one of America’s most influential news organizations could be pushed toward the same kind of right-wing ideological transformation we’ve seen over at Paramount-controlled CBS News.

Ask Scott Pelley.

CNN, a network long known for aggressive political coverage and, despite right-wing accusations, broadly mainstream journalistic standards, will be told to avoid stories most likely to upset people in power.

Much like how Bari Weiss told 60 Minutes producers to portray the Minneapolis protesters as threatening and aggressive (we saw that they were not) and to claim that Renee Good drove her car towards the ICE stooge who murdered her (we saw that she did not).

But the CNN transformation won’t be an obvious takeover. No dramatic announcements.

A tough investigation gets delayed. A journalist asking uncompromising questions becomes a liability. A difficult story becomes a “complicated story.” Real news is ignored in favor of “puff pieces” and propaganda.

Not Even Animation is Safe

With Warner Bros. and Nickelodeon’s respective, massive creative libraries and franchises under one conservative corporate roof, an enormous portion of the animation universe could be controlled by one company.

With fewer companies, fewer artists get to create. Diverse voices begin to vanish.

Children’s programming can be easily manipulated to condition younger generations. And if it can, they will.

Foreign Interest

Here's where it gets truly scary.

Reportedly, Trump’s administration is allowing Paramount to finance the deal using 100% foreign funds – unheard of in deals of this type under previous administrations – including money from Saudi Arabia (who loves journalists to pieces!) and the United Arabic Emirates (known to be oh, so tolerant!).

With right-wing owners and even more intolerant investors, the question will no longer be just “What movies will we watch?”

It becomes “What movies will we be allowed to see?”

Controlling media is not just about changing what people watch.

It is about changing what people imagine is possible. Changing how people think.

Entertainment can be weaponized. And if they can, they will.

It can be used to normalize certain ideas, erase others, and create a version of America where some people (white, straight, conservative) are celebrated, and those who don't fit that mold are pushed even further to the margins.

Films never funded. Documentaries sitting in vaults. Voices never amplified.

A WB/Paramount merger won’t destroy show business. And no, it won't literally be the final film studio.

Their movies will continue to roll out. Shows will still stream. Premieres will take place with the usual red carpets like nothing has changed.

But slowly, you’ll see the shift.

Heroes will start looking the same.

Stories will stop challenging the status quo and start protecting it.

A Hollywood driven only by profit has already long been a challenge for creative artists.

A Hollywood controlled by concentrated conservative corporate power during a political movement actively fighting for control of America’s soul is far more serious. And threatening.

What You Can Do

Now all of this may seem alarmist. "Oh, Leon! You're just paranoid!"

But we've seen how Trump and his cronies have weaponized the entire government to suit his purposes, and to rewrite history in his favor.

Do you seriously think he'd not do the same with show business?

Please visit the links below to learn more. I hope you will join the fight to halt the right-wing takeover of American media.

American Economic Liberties Project: www.economicliberties.us 

Committee for the First Amendment: www.committeefortheirfstamendment.org

Future Film Coalition: www.futurefilmcoalition.org 

Writers Guild of America West: www.wga.org