Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Opponents React With Dismay About Settlement

The American Economic Liberties Project and the Block the Merger Coalition slammed the transaction, with one calling it “a bad deal for the future of film, entertainment, independent journalism, and a strong democracy in this country.“ Opponents to the Warner Bros. Discovery-Paramount megamerger reacted with alarm and dismay on Monday as news arrived of a settlement. Opponents to the Warner Bros. Discovery–Paramount megamerger reacted with alarm and dismay on Monday as news arrived that 12 states suing to block the deal had settled with David Ellison’s company. On Monday details emerged that the deal included spending more on U.S. film production, making attempts to limit price increases at movie theaters, investing in workforce training and keeping both Warner Bros.

and Paramount production lots open. Before the settlement was even officially announced, the American Economic Liberties Project — a nonprofit devoted to antitrust regulation that had been involved in organizing worker town halls opposed to the merger — gave a fiery statement about the move. “Today, billionaires have yet again bribed, censored, and bullied their way to the top,” the organization’s senior advisor Alvaro Bedoya, a former FTC commissioner, said in a statement. “As a result, a billionaire media conglomerate closely allied with the president will soon own one of its closest rivals, including some of the nation’s most critical news