\n<\/p>\n
Over the first 10 months of his second presidency, Donald Trump has not hidden his desire to control the US media industry \u2013 <\/strong>from encouraging TV networks to fire journalists, comedians and critics he dislikes to pushing regulators to revoke broadcast licences. Now he seems determined to set the terms for one of the biggest media deals in history.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a deal that could have repercussions not just in the US, but across the world, with not just the future of Hollywood at stake but also the landscape of news.<\/p>\n Another American president likely would have politely declined to comment when asked by a reporter about a massive media merger that would require fact-driven oversight and regulatory approval by a purportedly independent-minded branch of their administration.<\/p>\n But when Trump was asked on Sunday about Netflix\u2019s $82.7bn (\u00a361.8bn) deal to acquire the studio and streaming businesses of Warner Bros Discovery \u2013 the media company whose assets run the gamut from Batman and Casablanca to The Sopranos, Succession and CNN \u2013 he didn\u2019t hesitate to say he would be \u201cinvolved\u201d in the review process for the deal.<\/p>\n Days later a media conglomerate with close ties to his administration, Paramount Skydance, the company behind the Paramount Pictures movie studios, CBS US TV network and Channel 5 in the UK, countered with a hostile $108bn offer for the company.<\/p>\n Trump then offered a contrasting commentary on his role.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not involved in that,\u201d he told reporters on Wednesday, before adding: \u201cI will be probably involved \u2013 maybe involved in the decision. It depends. You have some good companies bidding on it.\u201d<\/p>\n Contradicting himself, Trump then laid out a condition for his support of a deal: the company that buys WBD\u2019s studio, HBO and its streaming assets must also acquire its television channels and make big changes at the cable news network he has long despised, CNN.<\/p>\n \u201cI think CNN should be sold, because I think the people that are running CNN right now are either corrupt or incompetent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/span>President Trump has made contradictory comments over his involvement in the deal for Netflix to acquire Warner Bros Discovery.<\/span> Photograph: Patrick T Fallon\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Only Paramount \u2013 run and backed by Trump supporters \u2013 had bid for the entire company.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t normal, commentators and former antitrust officials <\/strong>were quick to point out. \u201cIt\u2019s not designed to be a system where the president wakes up one morning and decides it. It\u2019s actually supposed to be the opposite of that,\u201d said Columbia University law professor Tim Wu, who served in Joe Biden\u2019s White House from 2021 to 2023 as a special assistant to the president for competition and tech policy.<\/p>\n During the Biden administration, \u201cwe followed the old rules, and the old rules suggested that the White House had to stay very far away from mergers,\u201d Wu said \u2013 though \u201cthe parties always wanted us to get involved\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all set up to keep the White House away,\u201d he said. \u201cThis White House? Totally different kind of place.\u201d<\/p>\n Phillip Berenbroick, who served as chief counsel for the US Senate\u2019s judiciary subcommittee on antitrust matters, said that while \u201cit\u2019s not surprising that [Trump\u2019s] interested and says so publicly, that is different from how most presidents and how most administrations have treated the antitrust review process. I think he does relish playing the role of deal-maker\u201d.<\/p>\n Paramount\u2019s starring role raises the likelihood of Trump\u2019s involvement, considering the company is backed by his longtime friend and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and run by his Trump-friendly son David, who has talked up the company\u2019s \u201cgood\u201d relationship with the administration.<\/p>\n Another factor that may well weigh in Paramount\u2019s favour, as far as Trump is concerned, is the role of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose investment company Affinity Partners is an outside funder for the bid \u2013 though Trump said earlier this week that he hasn\u2019t talked to him about it.<\/p>\n <\/span>Jared Kushner, with wife Ivanka Trump, owns investment company Affinity Partners which is an outside funder for the bid from Paramount.<\/span> Photograph: Luigi Costantini\/AP<\/p>\n Senator Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, along with several of her fellow Senate Democrats, has called foul.<\/p>\n \u201cDonald Trump seems to be saying any Warner Bros bidder needs to make a deal with him \u2013 and that could involve a donation to his gold-encrusted ballroom, or it could involve getting rid of a news outlet that he doesn\u2019t like or making movies that only flatter him,\u201d she told the Guardian.<\/p>\n \u201cBut Donald Trump should not be the ultimate decision maker here. There needs to be a fair and independent review of this deal, and a straightforward application of the strong antitrust laws we already have on the books.\u201d<\/p>\n But despite Trump\u2019s seeming preference, this deal is far from done. Whichever company ultimately wins out for WBD\u2013 and WBD has said that it will evaluate Paramount\u2019s proposal and give its shareholders a recommendation within 10 days \u2013 the deal will need to be approved by the antitrust division of the justice department, which is run by Gail Slater, a lawyer with a solid reputation around Washington.<\/p>\n Wu emphasised that while the justice department has the most significant role to play, a decision to approve the merger could easily be challenged by a state attorney general or attorneys general, with California \u2013 ground zero for the entertainment industry \u2013 most likely to take adverse action and potentially hold up the deal.<\/p>\n \u201cUsually people say, \u2018Well, it all depends on what Trump thinks.\u2019 But I think it\u2019s actually not that simple,\u201d Wu said, adding, \u201cTrump likes the idea that it all depends on what Trump thinks.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about the Paramount bid on Monday, Trump played neutral, suggesting that neither Netflix nor Paramount \u201care particularly great friends of mine\u201d \u2013 though a White House official said that he has good relationships with both companies and does not have a position one way or the other.<\/p>\n Trump has acknowledged that he had recently met Ted Sarandos, the co-chief executive of Netflix, calling him \u201cfantastic\u201d, though he said Sarandos made no guarantees to him about the merger.<\/p>\n Trump has said approval of the deal would depend on how much market share Netflix would take on by acquiring WBD, which he said \u201ccould be a problem\u201d, considering its existing dominance of the streaming business. \u201cI want to do what\u2019s right,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s so very important to do what\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n Because a merger of WBD with either Paramount or Netflix would probably serve to greatly reduce competition in Hollywood, both deals are \u201chighly dubious in terms of legality\u201d, said Victor Pickard, professor of media policy and political economy at the University of Pennsylvania. \u201cIt seems to me that it should be a textbook case of being seen as anti-competitive in defiance of our antitrust laws, but that certainly doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t go through.\u201d<\/p>\n Berenbroick, now a senior strategist for the American Economic Liberties Project, predicted that the merger will \u201craise red flags\u201d for state, federal and global regulators because of the \u201csignificant consolidation\u201d that would result. He expressed confidence in the career staffers at the justice department\u2019s antitrust division. \u201cThose people are really professional and good at their jobs,\u201d he said. The department can file a lawsuit to block the deal, as it did \u2013 unsuccessfully \u2013 in 2017 to stop the merger of AT&T and then-CNN parent company Time Warner.<\/p>\n Trump could hamper the government\u2019s case in a potential lawsuit by making a statement of preference for one bidder or another, creating the perception of a skewed process, industry experts say.<\/p>\n Despite concerns about consolidation, both Netflix and Paramount have argued publicly that their company would have an easier time winning regulatory approval for the deal. And both companies have hired officials with ties to Trumpworld, potentially easing the path to approval. In October, Paramount brought on as chief legal officer Makan Delrahim, who served as head of the department of justice\u2019s antitrust division during the first Trump administration. Not wanting to be outdone, Netflix this past week brought on Virginia Boney Moore, a former special assistant in Trump\u2019s first office of legislative affairs.<\/p>\n But Trump clearly has a closer relationship with the Ellisons, and officials in his White House had previously discussed their preference for Paramount to emerge as the winning bidder for WBD, which formally put itself up for sale in October. In a filing with the US top financial regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission, Paramount said a Netflix acquisition of WBD would come with \u201cwith extraordinary regulatory risk\u201d and \u201ca longer timeline to a possible closing\u201d as a result.<\/p>\n During an interview on CNBC on Monday, David Ellison acknowledged having recent conversations with Trump that touched on CNN. (The Guardian first reported in November that Ellison\u2019s father, Larry, had talked with a senior White House official about potentially ousting two anchors the administration views as Trump critics, Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar.)<\/p>\n <\/span>CEO of Paramount Skydance David Ellison says he has had \u2018great conversations\u2019 with President Trump about his company owning CNN.<\/span> Photograph: Jeenah Moon\/Reuters<\/p>\n When asked whether he thinks Trump would \u201cembrace\u201d Paramount Skydance owning CNN, Ellison responded, \u201cWe\u2019ve had great conversations with the president about this \u2026 but I don\u2019t want to speak for him in any way, shape or form.\u201d<\/p>\n Pickard said reported conversations between Trump and the Ellisons about potential firings at CNN are \u201cprofoundly troubling\u201d and \u201cjust absurd for any democratic society worthy of the name\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe end goal of all of this is that Trump wants to snuff out any capacity for dissenting views or independent journalism,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Trump has largely praised the Ellisons for their stewardship of CBS News, which would probably be combined with CNN. Last month, Trump sat for his first interview with 60 Minutes in five years, and called Bari Weiss, the \u201canti-woke\u201d commentator who is now the network\u2019s newly appointed top editor, a \u201cgreat person\u201d. On Sunday, David Ellison sat in Trump\u2019s box at the Kennedy Center Honors award ceremony in Washington which the president himself hosted.<\/p>\n However, minutes after Paramount unveiled its bid on Monday he took to social media to slam the company over CBS\u2019s Sunday news magazine show 60 Minutes interview with the retiring congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. \u201cMy real problem with the show, however, wasn\u2019t the low IQ traitor, it was that the new ownership of 60 Minutes, Paramount, would allow a show like this to air. THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP.\u201d<\/p>\n These are just the opening salvoes in a corporate battle that could take months to resolve and will ultimately reshape global media. A veteran of the anti-trust space said it seems likely that Trump could pressure attorney general Pam Bondi to approve a deal of his choosing.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the president wants this deal approved and he tells Pam Bondi, \u2018I want this deal approved\u2019 \u2026 they\u2019ll find a way to approve it,\u201d the veteran said. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean that the states can\u2019t come in and fight the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the first 10 months of his second presidency, Donald Trump has not hidden his desire to control the US media industry \u2013 from encouraging TV networks to fire journalists, comedians and critics he dislikes to pushing regulators to revoke broadcast licences. Now he seems determined to set the terms for one of the biggest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[820,2036,696,964,1522,81,2035],"class_list":{"0":"post-37430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-battle","9":"tag-bros","10":"tag-deal","11":"tag-donald","12":"tag-story","13":"tag-trump","14":"tag-warner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}