{"id":584490,"date":"2026-04-14T22:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/584490\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T22:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:34:09","slug":"cory-booker-to-hold-hearing-on-paramount-warner-bros-discovery-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/584490\/","title":{"rendered":"Cory Booker To Hold Hearing On Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tSen. <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/cory-booker\/\" id=\"auto-tag_cory-booker\" data-tag=\"cory-booker\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cory Booker<\/a> (D-NJ), the top Democrat on the Senate antitrust subcommittee, will hold a \u201cspotlight hearing\u201d on Wednesday on <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/paramount\/\" id=\"auto-tag_paramount\" data-tag=\"paramount\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paramount<\/a>\u2018s proposed merger with <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/warner-bros-discovery\/\" id=\"auto-tag_warner-bros-discovery\" data-tag=\"warner-bros-discovery\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tBooker <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Invitation-to-Testify-at-4.15.2026-Spotlight-Hearing.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">also has invited Paramount CEO David Ellison to testify<\/a>, follow up on previous letters asking him to appear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tA \u201cspotlight hearing\u201d is not an official hearing on the Senate Judiciary schedule, but rather are typically held by one or more members of a party to focus on a particular issue. Last month, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) held a spotlight hearing in Los Angeles on the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tPer Booker\u2019s office, those scheduled to appear at Wednesday\u2019s hearing include David Borenstein, this year\u2019s documentary feature winner for Mr. Nobody Against Putin; Michael Isaac, director of legal services at the Writers Guild of America East; attorney Katie Phang; and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder and executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and member of the steering committee of Jane Fonda\u2019s Committee for the First Amendment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tFonda\u2019s committee helped organize <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/04\/paramount-warner-bros-merger-hollywood-letter-1236858953\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">an open letter of industry professionals<\/a> opposing the Paramount-WBD merger. A spokesperson for another group that is involved in the effort, the Democracy Defenders Fund, said that more than 2,000 have signed on to the letter, with Edward Norton, Pedro Pascal, Florence Pugh and Atsuko Okatsuka recently adding their names.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tA Paramount spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tIn his latest message to Ellison, Booker noted <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/04\/paramount-warner-bros-merger-creatives-letter-1236859235\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paramount\u2019s response<\/a> to the open letter. \u201cParamount stated that the merger would ensure that creatives have \u2018more avenues for their work, not fewer\u2019 and that the combined company would \u2018greenlight more projects\u2019 and \u2018back bold ideas.\u2019 These are serious commitments. This forum is an opportunity for you to make them directly to Congress and to the workers, journalists and creators whose livelihoods depend on whether these promises are kept.\u201d The New York Times first reported on Booker\u2019s letter. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), the top Democrat on the Senate antitrust subcommittee, will hold a \u201cspotlight hearing\u201d on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[37003,18205,5109,88,4208,226553,98102,92,10343],"class_list":{"0":"post-584490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-cory-booker","9":"tag-david-ellison","10":"tag-electionline","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-paramount","13":"tag-paramount-wb","14":"tag-senate-judiciary-committee","15":"tag-tv","16":"tag-warner-bros-discovery"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584490","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=584490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}