Members of the Block the Merger coalition denounced the settlement between Paramount Skydance and California Attorney General Rob Bonta that has allowed the studio to complete its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The press conference attended by approximately two dozen members of the coalition outside of the Paramount studio had been scheduled over the weekend as a rally to urge Bonta not to reach any settlement with Paramount Skydance and to proceed with a March 2027 trial.
But that was dashed when Bonta announced a settlement on Monday morning that held none of the structural remedies that he insisted must be a part of any settlement and contained an agreement that CNN and CBS News would be overseen by an independent editorial board appointed by Paramount’s board of directors despite Bonta’s insistence in multiple interviews that the lawsuit was filed out of antitrust issues, not over the editorial direction of CNN under CEO David Ellison, who has close ties to President Donald Trump.
“The editorial ‘independence’ board for CNN and CBS will have no independence. The people on that board will be handpicked by the Ellisons and will report to the Ellisons,” Anjuli Kronheim Katz, executive director of Committee for the First Amendment. “The settlement will be null and void if there’s a strike, or labor dispute, or an economic recession. These are hardly rarities in Hollywood, as we’ve seen the last few years.”
The majority of the rest of the deal consists of behavioral remedies, including a pledge to increase production spending in the United States by at least $1.5 billion — with further increases if a federal film tax incentive and uncapped California and New York state incentives are passed — and a pledge not to move the studio’s headquarters out of California as CEO David Ellison had previously threatened.
Paramount also pledged to release 30-32 films per year over the next five years, though only half of them have to be co-produced by the studio. TheWrap reported last month that film acquisitions were expected to be a major part of Paramount’s plan to fulfill that pledge as the studio had made hires to ramp up its distribution deals.
If Paramount falls short of that mark, the state AGs can sue for a $30 million penalty for each film below the pledged amount, though the onus would be on the AGs to enforce that penalty.
Those promises brought no comfort to the coalition members who attended the protest, including SAG-AFTRA national board member Frances Fisher, who expressed her outrage at Bonta for settling the lawsuit and the California Democrats who pressured him to do so, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
“I attended the Zoom call a couple of days ago where Rob Bonta showed up, and there was something in his demeanor that I didn’t trust. He wasn’t the Rob Bonta that I’d seen speaking a couple of weeks ago,” Fisher said. “And sure enough, he freaking caved along with Newsom and Bass. I am so disappointed and pissed off with these people who are playing with us like chess pieces.”
Jane Fonda, head of the Committee for the First Amendment, shared in Fisher’s disgust in a statement, lamenting the future of CNN and invoking the name of its founder and her ex-husband, Ted Turner.
“I am sickened by how Banta has sold people in the entertainment industry, as well as consumers of our creative work down the river. The terms of this settlement at this moment in our nation’s history will be extraordinarily damaging. I’m glad Ted isn’t here to witness the destruction of his unique and important creation,” she said.
The WGA settled its own lawsuit with Paramount as well, noting that it still opposed the merger but was unable to continue its lawsuit without the support of Bonta and the 11 other attorneys general who initially sued the studio in July. As part of the settlement, the WGA secured a five-year moratorium on CNN layoffs and a $17.5 million payment from Paramount to the union’s struggling health plan fund.
While details were light on next steps, the Block the Merger members said they would stay organized and keep fighting against industry consolidation and billionaire control of media. WGA East screenwriter Jacob Hart urged more rank-and-file workers in Hollywood to join their cause.
“A lot of people are going to use this as an excuse to say, ‘See, too much money in politics. Why fight back? It’s corrupt. It’s broken. What’s the point?’ And until I live in a country where more than 50% of the people who can vote do, I don’t want to hear that,” he said. “I don’t want to hear it while people are out here in the streets protesting, organizing, mobilizing… and most importantly, calling their reps at every level of government all the time to issue demands and say, ‘Do it our way or good luck getting elected next time around.’ That’s what I want to see.”
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