The latest on Warner Bros. Discovery
For a deal that likely won’t be settled for months, there’s still a lot to dig through when it comes to the sale of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Let’s start with this. The Washington Post’s Will Oremus and Scott Nover wrote, “MAGA influencers urge Trump to kill Netflix deal over streamer’s Obama ties.”
Late last week, Netflix reached a deal to buy WBD in a deal worth around $83 billion. But on Monday, Paramount Skydance, led by CEO David Ellison, launched a hostile takeover bid. Ellison has a close relationship with President Donald Trump, and one of the backers of the Paramount bid is Affinity Partners, the investment firm founded by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Many conservatives are rooting for Paramount to end up with WBD. And, as the Post pointed out in its latest story, MAGA influencers don’t want to see WBD end up under Netflix’s control.
Back in 2018, Netflix struck a deal with Higher Ground, the production company of former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. In addition, Susan Rice, a key national security official in the Obama administration, is on Netflix’s board of directors.
Now, right-wing influencers such as Jack Posobiec, Benny Johnson and Laura Loomer are complaining about Netflix possibly ending up with WBD. One tweet from Johnson — in which Johnson claimed the Obamas and other Democrats would “own a monopoly on children’s entertainment” and “push trans ideology, race guilt, and anti-family messaging straight into your living room” — was reshared nearly 10,000 times and had more than 23,000 likes.
Oremus and Nover wrote, “The commentariat’s push to paint Netflix as aligned with Democrats and a liberal agenda adds to a swirl of controversy and intrigue circling what would be one of the largest media mergers in recent history. It amounts to an online appeal from the right to a Trump administration that has the authority to review a deal of this size under antitrust laws and has shown itself willing to intervene in media deals — and to lend an ear to right-wing influencers.”
Meanwhile …
While the right is pacing the floors over Netflix possibly landing WBD, others are raising eyebrows about Paramount ending up with WBD. Part of that is due to Kushner’s involvement. But there’s more.
Paramount said its offer was “backstopped” by the Ellison family, but the bid includes billions of dollars in funding from other backers, including sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Think about that for a moment. Foreign governments are looking to invest in a company that owns a major news outlet: CNN. Paramount said in its offer that those parties “have agreed to forgo any governance rights – including board representation – associated with their non-voting equity investments.”
But still.
As Mediatie’s Colby Hall wrote, “Imagine if Hunter Biden were helping assemble billions in Saudi and Qatari financing so a progressive media owner could take over Fox News while quietly assuring the White House that he planned to replace hosts and reshape the network’s direction. The national reaction would be immediate. Congressional hearings, emergency ethics panels, a weeklong media frenzy.”
Well, isn’t that sort of what’s happening here?
The Wall Street Journal’s Joe Flint, Brian Schwartz and Natalie Andrews wrote this week, “During a visit to Washington in recent days, David Ellison offered assurances to Trump administration officials that if he bought Warner, he’d make sweeping changes to CNN, a common target of President Trump’s ire, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has told people close to him that he wants new ownership of CNN as well as changes to CNN programming.”
Hall goes on to write for Mediaite, “Many will argue that the American media has always had politically motivated owners — the Hearsts, the Sulzbergers, the Murdochs. But ideological owners are not the core issue. The qualitative change comes when political families with direct stakes in government decisions, foreign governments with geopolitical interests, and corporate bidders seeking regulatory favor operate inside the same deal structure. That is not media partisanship. It is the integration of political power and global capital into a democracy’s information architecture.”
Hall adds, “This is what it means for a newsroom to become an asset class. Not a civic institution with editorial independence, but a tradable commodity in a marketplace where sovereign wealth funds, political insiders, and corporate consolidators negotiate for influence. Anchors become leverage points. Programming strategies become bargaining chips. Public narratives become elements of a transaction rather than reflections of journalistic judgment.”
Be sure to check out the entirety of Hall’s perceptive column.
So what about Paramount?
Semafor’s Rohan Goswami reports that Ellison spent part of Tuesday meeting with major shareholders of WBD, hoping to convince them to turn their shares over to him to help in his takeover bid.
Goswami wrote, “Three people involved in different meetings with Ellison said investors walked away reassured by what they saw from Ellison and his top team, according to those who met with him — and were ready to tender their shares in support of his upstart bid.”
For the shareholders, this is all about money. What’s the best deal financially?
Goswami added, “Investors walked away impressed — and are now waiting to see how Netflix and WBD each respond. WBD has 10 days from Paramount’s announcement to reply to it; shareholders have 20 business days to turn over their shares to Paramount, if they’re won over by Ellison’s arguments.”
A deadly year
It was a depressingly deadly year for journalists. In its 2025 report, Reporters Without Borders — known as RSF — writes, “Journalists do not just die – they are killed. The number of murdered journalists has risen again, due to the criminal practices of military groups — both regular and paramilitary — and organised crime. At least 53 of the 67 media professionals killed over the past year are victims of war or criminal networks.”
RSF reports that nearly half (43%) of the journalists slain in the past 12 months were killed in Gaza by Israeli armed forces. They also write, “In Mexico, organized crime groups are responsible for the alarming spike in journalist murders seen in 2025. This year has been the deadliest of the past three years — at least — and Mexico is the second most dangerous country in the world for journalists, with nine killed.”
In addition, the report says 503 journalists are currently detained around the world, adding, “The world’s largest prison for journalists is still China (121), with Russia (48) now in second place, imprisoning more foreign journalists than any other state: 26 Ukrainians. Myanmar (47) comes in third.”
RSF director General Thibaut Bruttin said in a statement, “This is where the hatred of journalists leads! It led to the death of 67 journalists this year — not by accident, and they weren’t collateral victims. They were killed, targeted for their work. It is perfectly legitimate to criticise the media — criticism should serve as a catalyst for change that ensures the survival of the free press, a public good. But it must never descend into hatred of journalists, which is largely born out of — or deliberately stoked by — the tactics of armed forces and criminal organisations.”
ABC extends Kimmel
