“Let’s fight this before they Bari Weiss all of our asses.”

Last week, David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance continued to show its brazen lack of ethics as a media company, with Bari Weiss’s attempted “murder” of CBS News’ “60 Minutes” moving quickly apace with the firing of Scott Pelley, who accused his new bosses of instructing him “to inject falsehoods and bias” into his reporting.

As the most watched news program on television, with over 4.1 million subscribers on YouTube, “60 Minutes” is yet another highly respected piece of media that Paramount is undermining as a result of Trump’s authoritarian rule, following its axing of late-night Trump critic Stephen Colbert (despite his show being profitable), and pulling the plug on its doc unit MTV Documentary Films, distributors of such Oscar-nominated (and political-minded) films as “The ABCs of Book Banning,” “Black Box Diaries,” and “I Am Ready, Warden.” Maybe it’s time to fight back.

Along with the Trump Administration’s efforts to cripple PBS, and widely stifle dissent, political parody, and investigative reporting, Paramount Skydance can no longer hide behind their purely capitalist motives. Now, they are not only complicit with, but are also aiding and abetting Trump’s attempts to destroy journalism, accountability, and democracy.

This is no surprise, as Trump frequently says this stuff out loud, which is probably why Democratic State Attorney Generals are now reportedly planning to file a lawsuit to block Paramount Skydance’s pending merger with WarnerBros Discovery. But the AGs have a long and difficult road ahead of them. According to several reports, they can probably throw a wrench into the merger, but stopping it altogether is another story.

In the meantime, producers, filmmakers, and media creators of all types and stature can use whatever precious time the State AGs can buy to put more pressure on Paramount Skydance to get out of politics, fire Bari Weiss, stop toeing the MAGA line, and get back to what they’re supposed to do: Create quality popular films and media.

As Oscar-nominated filmmaker Julie Cohen (“RBG”) wrote on BlueSky on Friday, “Let’s fight this before they Bari Weiss all of our asses.”

After CBS, CNN will certainly be next, and then who knows what will follow. As “Predators” director David Osit recently told me. “If the merger goes through, [CNN and HBO Documentary] are done. Why would we assume that they would survive? This is the point of it. This is why Trump wants the merger to happen; they want to continue to stamp down moderate and leftwing voices in favor of rightwing voices.”

So what can the industry do about it?

If such famous actors as Pedro Pascal, Edward Norton, Kristen Stewart, Ben Stiller, Mark Ruffalo, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and established directors Denis Villeneuve, J.J. Abrams, David Fincher, Daniel Kwan, Nia DaCosta, Shaka King, Yorgos Lanthimos, Taika Waititi, and Tom McCarthy have all signed #BlocktheMerger’s open letter denouncing the PSKY-WBD merger, can they also commit to abstaining from doing any work with Paramount-Skydance or its subsidiaries?

Shouldn’t everyone?

Last fall, “Yellowstone’s” Taylor Sheridan did just that, for several reasons, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing a source that he didn't want to be pressured to make an “overtly political” series for Ellison tied to America’s 250th anniversary.

So what would it take to get James Mangold, who has a first look deal with Paramount, to walk away from a company that is emboldening authoritarianism and white supremacism, spreading misinformation and kidnapping students, institutionalizing torture and normalizing violence.

Hey James Mangold, the Trump Administration killed two innocent American citizens. And their killers have faced zero accountability. And according to Pelley’s interview with the New York Times yesterday, it was that very “60 Minutes” news story about the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti that Bari Weiss was trying to influence and align with the Trump Administration’s flagrantly false narrative of events. James, do you really want to work with a company that is in bed with them?

What about Will Smith and Jon Chu, who also have first look deals with Paramount? Do their values as creators align with a company that is willfully closing down free speech and accountability? Paramount also owns the storied BET Networks, a longtime home for Black creators, who are now, yes, working with a corporation that was one of the first to capitulate to Trump’s racist executive orders gutting policies meant to create a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.

Call me a crazy left-winger, but maybe it’s time that creators and executives reject media companies that enable cruelty, racism, and anti-democratic rhetoric and lies?

This is no longer conjecture or prophetic, or something to worry about “in the future.” This is happening now. Beholden to America’s new corrupt would-be monarch, Paramount Skydance—in its own immoral bid for survival and power—has canceled comedians, squashed hard-hitting journalism, and perpetuated right-wing ideologies for everyone to see. What else needs to happen before people get off the totalitarian bus? Don't be complicit. Don’t let them profit off your labor. Don’t let them perpetuate falsehoods. Don’t let them destroy democracy.

As Pelley told the New York Times, “there is no democracy without journalism.” And guess what, there also aren’t thriving creative industries without democracy.

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