Trumpland Ramps Up Attacks On Netflix Warner Brothers Merger To Help Larry Ellison
from the only-OUR-propaganda-is-good-propaganda dept
So we’ve been noting how the Trump administration has been helping Larry Ellison wage war on Netflix’s proposed merger with Warner Brothers. Not because they care about antitrust (that’s always been a lie), but because they want Larry Ellison to be able to dominate media and create a safe space for unpopular right wing ideology.
After Warner Brothers balked at Larry’s competing bid and a hostile takeover attempt, Larry tried to sue Warner Brothers. With that not going anywhere, Larry and MAGA have since joined forces to try and attack the Netflix merger across right wing media, falsely claiming that “woke” Netflix is attempting a “cultural takeover” that must be stopped for the good of humanity.
With hearings on the Netflix merger looming, MAGA has ramped up those attacks with the help of some usual allies. That includes the right wing think tank the Heritage Foundation, which has apparently been circulating a bogus study around DC claiming that Netflix and Warner Brothers are “engineering millions of Americans into a predisposition to accept preferred leftwing ideological dogma”:
“Without ever saying Warner Bros or bid rival Paramount by name, the Oversight Project’s analysis, titled Fedflix: Netflix, The Federal Government, and the New Propaganda State, insists that “relevant federal agencies must scrutinize with extreme intensity any potential Netflix acquisitions of other media and entertainment companies to take into account the full ramifications of the impacts on American society and the health of the Constitutional Republic.”
Again, the goal here is to ensure that Larry Ellison can buy Netflix (and HBO and CNN). Larry, as we’ve seen vividly with his acquisitions of CBS and TikTok, is buying up new and old media to create a propaganda safe space for America’s increasingly unhinged and anti-democratic extraction class. Like Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the goal is propaganda and information control.
And like any good propagandists, MAGA has tried to invert reality, and is increasingly trying to claim it’s Netflix that covertly wants to create a left-wing propaganda empire that spreads gayness and woke:
“With its subtitle of “The Weaponization of Entertainment for Partisan Propaganda,” the report is tailored for the MAGA base. Full of talking points and and mentions of Stranger Things, the Lena Dunham-produced Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste, the controversial Cuties docu from 2020, and the Obamas-produced American Factory, the 47-page report takes repeated swipes at any expansion of the streamer and its library of “leftwing and progressive” content.”
Of course that’s nonsense. Netflix has demonstrated that they’re primarily an opportunist, and will show whatever grabs eyeballs and makes them money (from gay military dramas that upset the pentagon to washed up anti-trans comedian hacks). And they’re certain to debase themselves further to please the Trump administration in order to gain approval of their merger.
That’s not to say that the Netflix Warner Brothers merger will be good for anybody. Most media consolidation is generally terrible for labor and consumers as we’ve seen with the AT&T–>Warner Brothers–>Discovery mergers. They almost always result in massive debt loads, tons of layoffs, higher prices, and lower quality product.
Enter an old MAGA playbook: try to convince a bunch of useful idiots that the authoritarian corporatist MAGA coalition somehow really loves antitrust reform and is looking out for the little guy, despite a long track record of coddling corporate power and monopoly control.
That’s again the game plan here by Heritage and administration mouthpieces like Brendan Carr; pretend you’re obstructing the Netflix deal for ethical and antitrust reasons, when you’re really just trying to help Larry Ellison engage in the exact sort of competitive and ideological domination you’re whining about.
Among the folks helping this project along is former Trump DOJ “antitrust enforcer” Makan Delrahim, who is now Paramount’s Chief Legal Officer. Delrahim played a starring role during the first Trump term in rubber stamping the hugely problematic Sprint T-Mobile merger, and attempting to block the AT&T Time Warner deal (to the benefit of Rupert Murdoch, who opposed the tie up).
And now here we are again, with many of the same folks joining forces to try and scuttle Netflix’s latest merger, simply to ensure their preferred, anti-democratic billionaire wins the prize.
Ideally, again, you’d block all media consolidation.
Since that’s clearly not happening under the corporation-coddling Trump administration, activists — and the two or three Democratic lawmakers who actually care about media reform — are probably better served by aligning themselves with Netflix. It’s most definitely a lesser of two evils scenario, with, as the chaos at CBS shows, greater Larry Ellison control of media being the worst possible outcome.
In any case, expect right wing propagandists and right wing media to start really lighting into Netflix in the weeks and months to come. You know, because they just really love truth and freedom and hate consolidated corporate power.
Filed Under: antitrust, disinformation, donald trump, larry ellison, maga, media consolidation, merger, streaming, video
Companies: netflix, oan, paramount, warner bros. discovery
Comments on “Trumpland Ramps Up Attacks On Netflix Warner Brothers Merger To Help Larry Ellison”
Just the idea that Netflix could create a Harry Potter show with Trump as Voldemort, the Death Eaters Leader, makes me support the buyout.
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Weird you say “anti-trans” like it’s a bad thing, but anyway, Chapelle is far from “washed up”.
Why are you so racist?
Re:
Example #8389281424 of a conservative who doesn’t understand the concept they’re trying to twist and weaponize against others. It’s not racist to call out a person of color for being anti-trans. A position on trans people isn’t racial. You know it’s okay to criticize people for actually bad things and doing so isn’t anti- whatever categories they might fit into, right? Oh wait, you’re a disingenuous asshole. Never mind.
But seriously, do you actually think that these kinds of responses are clever? Do you actually think that other people are blindly religiously but also simplistically devoted to a concept that you can weaponize it against them and they’ll just go, “oh, well, you’re right, I can’t stand up for my morals if it involves criticizing someone I would otherwise defend against racist statements by the same person who is trying to weaponize this concept against me!”
Troll harder. Your game is weak.
Of course they are. Their grip on the levers of power isn’t as tight as it could be, yet, and people still dare to mock the god emperor, so they’re using every tool at their disposal to ensure the right oligarchs control all of the media they can. This parirs nicely with their efforts to make sute the rest are appropriately cowed and viewed as worthless to ensure nobody cares when ICE or the proud boys arrive to tear apart the newsrooms and smash the printing presses.
I don’t see anything “ideal” about that. It’d be better than the status quo; but, ideally, we wouldn’t have to give a shit who’s buying what, because there would be open competition. (As there could be if copyright were abolished.)
Re:
My counter-argument is that, ideally, no one gets to buy anyone, ever. Then we wouldn’t have to care about it.
Sure, the giant conglomeration buying another giant conglomeration is so much less a trust issue than a company that grew itself without a crapload of M&A buying it (and utterly likely to sell off a whacking large chunk of that immediately). Makes perfect sense!
Also, media outlets can be left- or right-wing, or not. It’s allowed. You don’t just get to disallow part of that through mis-attribution and lies because your position is popular with loud sheep.