The boots of Donald Trump – swollen cankles, bone spurred feet and all – are once again stomping down on matters where they don’t belong. They have already trampled on everything from the Kennedy Center, to the Caribbean shores of Venezuela, to American cities with Democratic leaders that he regards as “the enemy within.”

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The latest victim of Trump’s tromping is the pending merger of media giants Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) and Netflix. The WBD board has already accepted the bid from Netflix that it deemed superior to the one by the Paramount-Skydance conglomerate. But unsatisfied with not having having his tiny thumb pressed firmly into the pie, Trump is openly lobbying against Netflix. That wouldn’t be because his friends David and Larry Ellison are the owners of Paramount and have promised to make make changes that Trump wants, would it?

SEE THIS: Paramount Caves to Trump’s Extortion, Disgraces CBS, Pays a $16M Bribe to Settle a Bogus Lawsuit

Setting aside the fact that it is both legally and ethically improper for Trump to interfere with the business affairs of these companies in a free market economy, Trump’s favoritism is transparently biased and aimed at benefitting himself and his wealthy comrades. On Sunday he posted a comment on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, that said simply “Stop the Netflix Cultural Takeover.” The post linked to an article disparaging the pending merger on the ultra right-wing website, One America News Network (OAN), by disgraced attorney John M. Pierce. The article said that…

“Netflix’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is not simply another Hollywood deal. It is an attempt to consolidate unprecedented cultural power inside one of America’s most ideologically aggressive corporations — a company that has repeatedly used its global platform to elevate progressive narratives while suppressing dissenting viewpoints.”

That is, to use a technical term, bullshit! There is no evidence that Netflix has any political ideology, much less one that is “aggressive” and is “suppressing dissenting viewpoints.” That’s an opinion that even Trump disagrees with. Trump recently met with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos in the Oval Office and came away saying that Sarandos is “fantastic” and that “I have a lot of respect for him. He is a great person.”

The article’s main argument against the Netflix/WBD merger is that it would would weaken competition. That’s true, But it’s just as true – if not worse – if WBD were to merge with Paramount. The article’s position that WBD accepted the Netflix bid due to some ideological bias is ridiculous. First of all because the Netflix bid is markedly better. Secondly because the real bias would be if the Trump regime forced Netflix to accept the bid from Paramount, whose owners are devoted Trump fluffers. Then the article claimed that…

“Handing this machine control over Warner’s franchises and future output would allow one company to rewrite characters, retell history, redefine social norms, and control which ideas reach audiences. […] It is time to say no to a woke media monopoly before the damage becomes impossible to reverse.”

For the record, Paramount would be the “machine” that could “control which ideas reach audiences.” It already owns Paramount Pictures, Paramount Television, CBS Entertainment, CBS News, Showtime, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, TV Land, BET, Country Music Television, and 46 owned-and-operated TV stations across the country. Netflix is primarily a program producer and distributor. It doesn’t own any TV stations or, more importantly and unlike Paramount, any news networks.

Paramount has already demonstrated that it will bend the knee to Trump in its CBS News reporting. They recently censored CBS’ 60 Minutes, nixing a segment on the El Salvador gulag that Trump has been sending migrants to. They hired a right-wing blogger, Bari Weiss, to run their nightly news program with a decidedly more conservative bent. And they also canceled Stephen Colbert’s top rated late night comedy program. Just think what they would do if they acquired CNN, which is currently owned by Warner Bros and would be part of the merger with Paramount, but not with Netflix.

This would be a good time to examine the character of the OAN article’s author, John M. Pierce. He is an disreputable attorney with a long history of supporting Trump. He has been accused of making “threats against Department of Justice personnel.” And in September of 2021 NPR reported that…

“Pierce, a controversial lawyer with pro-Trump politics, has taken on more defendants related to the [January 6th] Capitol breach than any other attorney.”

[And that] “Court records from his divorce show that he has dealt with substance abuse and mental health problems for several years. His ex-wife has previously obtained two domestic violence restraining orders against him.”

That’s the caliber of author recruited by OAN to write this article attacking Netflix. And it’s why the article is so blatantly biased and counterfactual. There are some good reasons to oppose a WBD merger with either Netflix or Paramount. Corporate consolidation often harms both consumers and employees. But in this case the author leans heavily to one side, which invalidates his arguments entirely.

In the final analysis, Paramount would be far worse than Netflix as a partner for Warner Bros. It would cater to the whims of Trump, and deliver more conservative programming in both the entertainment and news divisions. And Trump’s cheerleading for Paramount is further proof of his bias and ignorance of proper conduct as president.

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