MAD expresses solidarity — and joins a public statement — with our colleagues at the Committee for the First Amendment and Free Press Action to reject Paramount’s latest extortion gambit: Paramount demands that either taxpayers from the 12 states suing to block its takeover of Warner Brothers put up nearly $2 billion in a bond to cover its fees, or Paramount pulls out of California.
While California AG Bonta has concerns that if the Paramount acquisition of Warner Brothers goes forward only four movie studios would remain, MAD is also very concerned with the effects this merger would have on journalism. The Ellisons purchased Paramount/CBS last year, and we’ve already seen 60 Minutes – and the rest of the Tiffany Network’s news division – eviscerated. The same fate awaits CNN if the takeover is allowed to go forward. In addition, the deal is corrupt, a debt time-bomb, a national security issue, and would decrease the diversity of voices in film, media, and journalism. For these reasons, this merger is a threat to our democracy.
Fight for the Future’s Evan Greer exposed “Neighbors For Strong Communities” as an astroturf campaign. The organization recently sent alarmist texts across the Golden State, alleging mayhem if the acquisition were stopped, and is in fact, not a Neighbor, but rather a K Street-based PR firm. Greer also discovered that the agency runs press for Flock Safety – a reviled surveillance partner to 5,000 law enforcement agencies which, many civil libertarians suspect, makes its license plate data available to ICE.
Birds of a Feather.
On Monday, Paramount launched the next wave of its expensive PR blitz: demanding that the 12 states suing to block its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery put up a $1.88 billion taxpayer-funded bond to cover costs that Paramount itself negotiated and agreed to pay Warner Bros shareholders if the deal was delayed.
The presiding judge in the states’ antitrust case, The Honorable Araceli Martínez-Olguín of the Northern District of California, has already signaled skepticism of Paramount’s economic-harm arguments and waived a bond requirement when she granted the states’ restraining order. Courts have rejected similarly inflated demands before: Nexstar Media Group sought a $150 million bond in its own merger challenge and was awarded just 0.007 percent of that sum.
Later on Monday, a group calling itself “Neighbors for Strong Communities” sent a text blast to Californians urging them to pressure Attorney General Rob Bonta to drop his opposition to the deal, and amplifying Paramount’s threat—”blackmail,” in Bonta’s own words—to move the studio’s headquarters out of California unless the State AGs drop the suit.
The sender organization’s website is less than three months old. It discloses no founders, board members, staff, or funders, and the organization does not appear in ProPublica’s nonprofit database. Its listed address, 1714 Connecticut Avenue in Washington, DC, is a building occupied by an Italian restaurant and TSD Communications, a political consultancy. These are classic hallmarks of a corporate-backed astroturf campaign designed to manufacture the appearance of grassroots opposition.
“Taxpayers should under no circumstances be on the hook for costs that Paramount and Warner Bros. negotiated and committed to as part of their own multi-billion-dollar deal,” said Mark Ruffalo, actor and member of the Committee for the First Amendment. “That Paramount would make such a demand on the same day that a shady organization is trying to manufacture constituent opposition to Attorney General Bonta shows again how desperate they are to force this merger through before a judge can rule on its legality.”
“The behavior we’re seeing is what powerful corporations do when they are losing control of the story,” said Rashad Robinson, Co-Chair of the Committee for the First Amendment. “The more the public understands what’s at stake — fewer jobs, fewer stories told, and even more power in the hands of a few billionaires — the harder the deal becomes for Paramount to defend. They want to manufacture support they don’t have and raise the cost for the public officials willing to stand up to corporate greed. Astroturf campaigns and threats to stick taxpayers with the bill are signs of desperation, not strength.”
“These corporations know where the grassroots movement actually is: with the industry professionals fighting to block this merger,” said Jessica J. González, co-CEO of Free Press Action. “Thousands of workers and hundreds of thousands of consumers have opposed this deal. The pro-merger coalition is a handful of billionaires and bankers, and they are trying to buy a constituency and extort the public at the same time. This PR campaign is yet another face-off between the many and the money.”
“Paramount negotiated the ticking fees to entice Warner Brothers shareholders in a hostile takeover bid,” said Milo Vassallo, Executive Director of the Media and Democracy Project. “The deal reeks of corruption. Now they are trying to weaponize the fees to pressure the states and block legitimate scrutiny by the courts. They know the takeover is in jeopardy. The number of people this merger benefits fit in a stretched limo – it’s no surprise they would need to pay for an astroturf campaign.”
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