{"id":478841,"date":"2026-02-20T00:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/478841\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T00:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:18:13","slug":"senate-democrats-threaten-investigation-of-paramounts-wbd-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/478841\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Democrats Threaten Investigation Of Paramount’s WBD Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA group of Democratic senators is threatening an investigation of Paramount<\/a> as they fired off a letter to CEO David Ellison<\/a>, seeking information on the company\u2019s contacts with the Trump administration and the president himself over its attempts to acquire Warner Bros.<\/a> Discovery.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe letter <\/a>\u2014 from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> (D-NY), Sen. Cory Booker<\/a> (D-NJ), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) \u2014 asks Ellison to preserve a trove of documents related not just to the merger proposal but to CBS news and content decisions. Ellison\u2019s Skydance acquired CBS parent Paramount last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe senators also said that they were gathering the material for a \u201cpotential investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThey wrote, \u201cLast week, Paramount-Skydance announced that it certified substantial compliance with the Department of Justice\u2019s December 23, 2025, Second Request for Information, commencing a 10- day waiting period for DOJ\u2019s review. The announcement expressed strong confidence that Paramount will secure \u2018the necessary clearances quickly and efficiently\u2019 because, in its estimation, the acquisition does not \u2018raise any competition concerns.\u2019 However, we can assure you that it raises significant competition concerns that the Senate has not had an opportunity to examine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThey added, \u201cThe pattern of evasion, combined with Paramount\u2019s apparent confidence that a politically sensitive transaction will clear without difficulty warrants serious scrutiny. In light of these developments, and pursuant to both your preservation obligation in anticipation of potential litigation surrounding the proposed acquisition and Congress\u2019 additional oversight responsibilities, this letter serves as notice to preserve records related to the proposed Paramount Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe senators cited Ellison\u2019s decision to decline to testify in person at a hearing earlier this month on Netflix<\/a>\u2018s deal to purchase Warner Bros., with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos<\/a> appearing before the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee. The lawmakers also noted that the top Democrat on the committee, Booker, had posed a series of questions to Ellison that went unanswered in his reply<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount is making a competing bid<\/a> for all of Warner Bros. Discovery, in a battle for the prized assets with Netflix. The senators cannot block a deal that is in the hands of the DOJ, but their letter is a signal that Democrats will pursue an investigation should they retake the Senate in November\u2019s midterms.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong other things, the lawmakers are seeking Paramount communications with Trump, members of his family, and individuals associated or affiliated with the president. They also want documents related to lobbyists and others advocating for the transaction, and donations made to Trump or to his PACs or other causes. They also want records \u201crelated to news and content decisions at CBS that reflect real or perceived influence by any member of the Trump Administration or any of the lobbyists or other agents involved with the proposed transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA Paramount spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his letter to Booker, Ellison warned of the impacts <\/a>of the Netflix-WB merger on competition and theatrical distribution. In his testimony, Sarandos warned of severe cost cutting should Paramount acquire the prized assets.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump initially said that he would be involved in determining whether the DOJ gave the greenlight to Paramount or Netflix, something that was viewed as giving Ellison given the president\u2019s tight relationship with his father, Larry Ellison. But Trump more recently said that he would not be involved<\/a> and would leave it to the DOJ.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an interview with NBC News, Trump said that \u201cthere is a theory that one of the companies is too big, and it shouldn\u2019t be allowed to do it. And the other company is saying something else.\u201d He didn\u2019t specify the companies.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey are beating the hell out of each other, and there will be a winner,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of Democratic senators is threatening an investigation of Paramount as they fired off a letter to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[46961,37003,18205,5109,88,217,168491,4208,77953,92,10343,5251],"class_list":{"0":"post-478841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-chuck-schumer","9":"tag-cory-booker","10":"tag-david-ellison","11":"tag-electionline","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-netflix","14":"tag-netflix-wb","15":"tag-paramount","16":"tag-ted-sarandos","17":"tag-tv","18":"tag-warner-bros-discovery","19":"tag-warner-bros"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}