Trump's Trials - Paramount's chairman says lawsuit opposing Warner Bros. merger is political

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

An antitrust lawsuit has put Paramount's bid for larger rival Warner Brothers Discovery in jeopardy. Paramount's chairman says the problem is really about politics — and whether he's fit to own CNN.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Trump's terms. I'm Scott Detrow. Every episode, we bring you one story from NPR's recent coverage of the 47th president. With a focus on ways his administration is pushing the boundaries of presidential power. Here's the latest from NPR. I'm Michelle Martin. Paramount's attempt to quickly take over Warner Brothers' discovery has been slowed down in court. Twelve Democratic state's attorneys general sued arguing the deal violated antitrust laws. Now, Paramount's chairman says the holdup is really about politics and whether he's fit to own Warner's news channel, CNN. NPR's David Fulkenflick reports.

The $11 billion deal would tie together Paramount Pictures with Warner Brothers Studios, more than 50 basic cable channels with CBS, the Paramount Plus and HBO Max streaming services, and more. Paramount Chairman David Ellison said together it would be a stronger, well-capitalized, creative first company with a scale to compete a lot. alongside Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and others. Ellison projected confidence to investors on a conference call yesterday. We continue to believe very strongly that the combination of these two businesses create a stronger competitor that is good for Hollywood, good for consumers, and good for the creative community. Yet Ellison sidestepped the argument he had unleashed in the opinion section of the New York Times just hours earlier. The deal would also bring CBS News and, yes, CNN, under one roof.

Ellison argued that was the real sticking point for the Democratic Attorney's General. He disclaimed any interest in putting a finger on the scale in news, writing that he supported Republicans and Democrats. But Ellison didn't mention either of the two figures hovering over this deal. His father, Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, is the money behind the bid for Warner and a close ally of the second figure. That's President Trump, whose regulators have given the Ellison's the green light. David Ellison threw a banquet for the First Amendment earlier this year at which he honored

Trump. Trump hates CNN, and politics, it's already kind of on the menu. The editor-in-chief that Ellison chose for CBS is a journalist who sees the press as too reflexively liberal. I think it's a little bit about politics about CNN. This is Hollywood power player Ari Emanuel, offering his own diagnosis of the problem and his own solution yesterday on CNBC's squawk box. And I think there's a way around that if you just get in a room, not cost everybody money, and say, okay, let's put an editorial board over the news organization so that everybody's calm about news and possibly Larry Ellison controlling CNN and CBS. A Paramount spokesperson tells NPR that's just a manual suggestion.

That model is not unheard of in the news business. To investors, Ellison said he welcomes a swift resolution, however it may arrive. We're absolutely open to finding a solution out of court, but we also really believe that we'll win at trial. We believe it the facts in the law are on our side. Every day of delay past September 30th cost Paramount more money owed to Warner Brothers investors. Paramount had asked for the trial to start in November. The judge said it for early next March.

David Fulkenflick, NPR News. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news. With new episodes every week. day afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.