Logo text
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) had sharp words for Paramount CEO David Ellison ahead of a hearing investigating potential competition problems posed by the company’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
Booker called Ellison to testify, highlighting the “significant concerns” raised about the deal and Mogul’s refusal to testify at an earlier hearing, according to a Monday letter he viewed. Hollywood Reporter.
“As the leader of a company pursuing one of the largest media mergers in American history, your continued unwillingness to engage with congressional oversight is itself a matter of public concern,” the top Democrat on the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee wrote.
On Wednesday, Booker will host a hearing examining the harmful competitive effects of the deal. It will discuss the potential ramifications of a merger between two of Hollywood’s five largest studios and two major news networks. Among the expected witnesses is Academy Award winner David Borenstein, who directed the film Mr. Nobody is against Putin; Michael Isaac, Director of Legal Services at WGA East; lawyer and political commentator Katie Fang; and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and also a member of the steering committee of the Jane Fonda First Amendment Commission.
The letter inviting Ellison to testify follows Fonda’s group’s release on Monday of a letter signed by more than 1,000 writers, actors and directors opposing Paramount’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. They warned that the deal would lead to “fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs and fewer choices for audiences in the US and around the world.”
In the letter to Ellison, Booker confirmed Paramount’s response to the letter, noting that the merger would ensure creators would have “more avenues for their work, not fewer” and that the combined company would “greenlight more projects.”
“These are serious commitments,” Booker wrote. “This forum is an opportunity for you to deliver directly to Congress and to the workers, journalists, and creatives whose livelihoods depend on keeping these promises.”
At a February hearing on Netflix’s proposed purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, valued at $83 billion, Booker criticized Ellison’s decision not to testify on behalf of Paramount.
Wednesday’s session will be streamed live here. This comes after another hearing on the merger called by Senator Adam Schiff, who is looking to rally support for a federal tax incentive to bring jobs back to the United States.
