Left-wing actress Jane Fonda is claiming that the coming sale of Warner Bros. Discovery is a “threat” to democracy thanks to the “consolidation” of the media.
In an op-ed published at The Ankler, Fonda warns that “the future of the entertainment industry is being negotiated behind closed doors.”
In her hyperbolic editorial, Fonda claimed that the sale threatens the very existence of the First Amendment.
After noting that we don’t know who will end up buying Warner Bros., she added, “But we don’t need to know the final outcome to understand the danger. The threat of this merger in any form is an alarming escalation in a consolidation crisis that threatens the entire entertainment industry, the public it serves, and — potentially — the First Amendment itself.”
She went on:
Regardless of which company ends up acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery or its parts, the resulting impact is clear: Consolidation at this scale would be catastrophic for an industry built on free expression, for the creative workers who power it, and for consumers who depend on a free, independent media ecosystem to understand the world. It will mean fewer jobs, fewer opportunities to sell work, fewer creative risks, fewer news sources and far less diversity in the stories Americans get to hear.
Fonda stated as fact that the sale will allow whoever buys the company to “steamroll” every union in the entertainment industry and “lessen the overall demand” for skilled labor of tens of thousands of workers and artists.
But that isn’t the worst of it, as far as Fonda is concerned. The actress commonly known as “Hanoi Jane” worried that Trump will have even more control over the media and will use it as a “tool of political pressure and censorship,” wholly ignoring that the Biden administration had already done just that for four long years.
Fonda pointed to claims that Trump and his associates wielded undue influence over the recent Skydance-Paramount merger and said she fears that the Warner sale will be more of the same — though she did not explain how that might be.
“This is not how media companies behave in a healthy democracy. It’s what political leverage over media companies looks like, and it’s right out of the authoritarian playbook,” Fonda railed.
It is all a direct threat to the First Amendment, she claimed.
I want to be very clear: The First Amendment is not partisan and neither is standing up to defend it. Even conservative leaders have warned that the administration is operating outside legal and ethical bounds. When the FCC Chair threatened Kimmel, several prominent Trump allies objected. Senator Ted Cruz said that using merger reviews to pressure media companies “creates a dangerous precedent” — one that could just as easily be used to silence conservatives under a future Democratic administration. “They will silence us,” he warned. He was right to be concerned. Everyone should be. Without the foundation of the First Amendment, every other aspect of our democratic society, including the American guarantee that we are free to live as we choose, is at risk.
Fonda went on to call for organized opposition to Trump, and insisted that “if we don’t speak now, we may have no industry — and no democracy — left to defend.”
“This is not a partisan fight. It is a fight for our creativity, our livelihoods and our most fundamental rights as Americans,” she exclaimed in closing.
“I choose to stand up. I hope you will join me,” she said.
Millions of Viet Nam War veterans remember when Fonda once “stood up” with others who opposed democracy altogether. They bitterly remember when she “stood up” right beside communist aggressors who would completely destroy our Constitutional rights, including the First Amendment she is suddenly so enthralled with.
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