The recent announcement that Warner Bros, a Hollywood institution for over a century, will be acquired by Netflix, one of the wokest Big Tech companies around, should set off alarm bells for anyone who cares about the future of America and our popular culture. The Trump Administration simply cannot allow this merger from leftist Hades (much worse than regular Hades) to proceed.
Netflix's catalog of offenses against decency and traditional values is voluminous. Take, for instance, its trumpeting of the trans agenda... to kids, no less! Netflix's constant nods to identity politics, moreover, make much of its programming unwatchable to anyone who didn't ooze “joy” the moment Kamala(!) became the Democratic Party annointee for president... Meanwhile, Netflix's fascination with leftist narratives, from climate change to “undocumented” immigrants, has laid bare its ideological bias. These manifold sins, in combination with the low quality and limited scope of Netflix's offerings, made it an easy decision for me to cut the (digital) cord to Netflix years ago, and I've never looked back.
Warner Bros, sadly, is proving less discerning. For reasons that beggar belief, it has accepted an inferior offer from Netflix, spurning a much larger bundle of cash from Paramount, the entertainment giant piloted by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, who is, in case you've forgotten, an open and shameless supporter of (gasp!) President Donald Trump. Hmm. Now that seems odd: a mainstream Hollywood studio has chosen to climb into bed with a famously liberal streaming service, and the financial interests of Warner Bros shareholders be damned! Nothing fishy there. The fact that Warner Bros controls CNN, a failed news network that nonetheless manages to irritate Trump and Republicans on a regular basis, might help to explain why the Ellisons and Paramount had to be denied. The last thing some people want is news networks that report the news, as opposed to TDS- inspired fever dreams.
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Luckily, there is hope that this freakish union can be thwarted before American popular culture succumbs once and for all to “progressive” degeneracy. For one thing, Pam Bondi's DOJ, and more specifically its antitrust division, will have something to say about whether the proposed Warner Bros/Netflix merger harms competition in the entertainment industry and/or represents an illegal monopoly. There are ample reasons to think that it does. President Trump has expressed concern on this point.
What's more, Warner Brothers shareholders and other interested parties can pursue legal action to prevent the merger by arguing that it pointedly ignored, or even deliberately violated, the fiduciary obligation of Warner Brothers' executives, if they sell the company, to seek the best possible deal and the highest possible price. Paramount made six separate offers to Warner Brothers, each more generous than the last, but in the end, Warner Brothers' CEO, David Zaslav, spurned the Ellisons and inked an agreement with the people who brought us Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp instead. Very logical! Nice stewardship of the Warner Bros legacy, Dave. And who needs money, anyway? It's highly overrated, from what I hear.
We can only hope that these political, legal, and financial countermeasures to the proposed Warner Bros/Netflix merger manage to head off this unholy alliance before it's too late. Otherwise, you could find yourself paying more and more for “entertainment” that is worse and worse, and which doesn't even pretend to promote or respect the values you hold dear. As Bugs Bunny (a Warner Brothers property) would say, that's “what's up, Doc”, and the sooner we organize ourselves to avert this calamity, the better!
Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is a history professor at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears on the Newsmakers show on WLEA/WYSL.
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