President Donald Trump’s Justice Department gave the green light last week to a controversial mega-acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes CNN, by Paramount Skydance, a media giant with a Trump-friendly CEO. But reports suggest they may have rushed the process and ignored the opinions of career officials.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “A team of career lawyers who had spent months scrutinizing the deal was leaning toward recommending a lawsuit challenging it on the grounds that the combination of the two movie studios would be anticompetitive and violate antitrust law, the people said.”
However, ultimately the DOJ told this team they were closing the investigation before they had formally made a decision, and announced publicly it was their opinion the merger wouldn’t pose a threat to competition.
Senior leaders at the DOJ, according to the report, “believed that Paramount Chief Executive Officer David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison, persuasively addressed many of the staff’s questions,” including “how the combined company could meet its commitment to make 30 theatrical releases a year, given its increased debt load.”
The DOJ denies any aspect of the investigation was rushed, putting out a statement in response to the reporting that said, “The Antitrust Division conducted a thorough investigation to assess whether the proposed transaction would harm competition. The investigatory record indicated that the transaction will increase competition across the media and entertainment ecosystem, benefiting American consumers and workers.”
Some strategists have warned that the merger will lead to a “shakeup” of talent at CNN similar to that which reshaped CBS under Paramount, including the possible reassignment or removal of figures like Kaitlan Collins who have heavily scrutinized Trump.
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