With Netflix Out, Cory Booker Calls For David Ellison To Testify On A Paramount-WBD Deal

Within minutes of Netflix announcing that it would not try to match the $31 per share Paramount offer, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) was out with an invite to Paramount CEO David Ellison: Testify before an already planned Senate hearing next week.

An aide to Booker, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, noted that Ellison had offered to appear were it to acquire WBD.

“In light of today’s announcement that Warner Bros. Discovery has designated Paramount’s offer a Company Superior Proposal, next week’s hearing presents a timely and appropriate opportunity for Mr. Ellison to make good on that commitment,” Booker’s aide said.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), the chair of the committee, already had scheduled a hearing for March 4, but it would have been centered on the Netflix-WB transaction, a month after co-CEO Ted Sarandos testified before the panel. Lee was highly critical of the Netflix-WB deal, as were a number of other Trump-aligned Republicans.

A Paramount spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ultimately, at the federal level, it is the Justice Department, not Congress, that can sue to try to block a deal, or take no action and let it move forward. But there is a long history of lawmakers using their bully pulpits to sound the alarm over certain transactions. A concerted effort, led by an offshoot of the Heritage Foundation, was launched to try to stop Netflix, casting it as a purveyor of “leftwing ideological dogma” in its content.

For their part, Booker and other Democrats had expressed their concerns about a Netflix-WB deal, but they have been particularly aggressive in pressing Ellison for answers about his contacts with Donald Trump and his administration. Last week, Democrats including Booker and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to Ellison, asking him to preserve records for a potential investigation. There are limits to what Democrats can do as the minority party, but that could change if they take control of Congress after the midterms this fall. Paramount has had no comment, but Ellison has not been shy about his ties to Trump and Republicans: He appeared at the State of the Union this week as a guest of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of the president’s allies.

Other Democrats quickly weighed in on the latest developments.

“Oligarchy in full effect,” wrote Tom Steyer, one of the Democratic candidates for governor.