{"id":2667617,"date":"2026-09-22T14:55:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T18:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignthe-consent-decree-between-paramount-and-california-is-insane\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T15:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T19:02:07","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignthe-consent-decree-between-paramount-and-california-is-insane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignthe-consent-decree-between-paramount-and-california-is-insane\/","title":{"rendered":"The Consent Decree Between Paramount And California Is Insane"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignthe-consent-decree-between-paramount-and-california-is-insane%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2667617&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>the article criticizes california attorney General Rob Bonta&#8217;s actions regarding media oversight, mergers, and industry control. It argues that Bonta&#8217;s efforts to regulate and monitor major media and entertainment companies-such as preventing Paramount and Warner bros. from merging and establishing oversight boards-represent an expansion of government influence into journalistic independence and industry decision-making. The piece portrays these measures as problematic, likening them to government control over content and production, and suggests that they undermine free market competition and artistic freedom. It also points out Bonta&#8217;s involvement in scrutinizing newsroom internal affairs, possibly politicizing editorial decisions. the article presents Bonta\u2019s approaches as hazardous overreach that threaten the integrity of media, entertainment, and economic freedom.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Democracy is that Democrats oversee television news. Take it from Gavin Newsom\u2019s halfwit communications director, who looks like he was rejected as an extra for <em>High School Musical<\/em>:<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<div lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>WRONG! Bonta struck a great deal for jobs and democracy. <\/p>\n<p>The alternative was:<\/p>\n<p>A HUGE LOSS of California jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Paramount MOVING to Tennessee.<\/p>\n<p>*ZERO* oversight to protect editorial independence at CNN and CBS. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cXRhI0T7yT\">https:\/\/t.co\/cXRhI0T7yT<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u2014 Izzy Gardon (@iGardon) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/iGardon\/status\/2102107382729842725?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 21, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>See, now a state government with single-party rule has \u201coversight\u201d authority with news organizations, which preserves the independence of the journalists. For media, \u201cindependence\u201d is when the news answers to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-ag-barr-authorizes-federal-prosecutors-to-pursue-substantial-allegations-of-voting-irregularities-before-2020-election-is-certified\/\" title=\"BREAKING: AG Barr Authorizes Federal Prosecutors to Pursue &quot;Substantial Allegations&quot; of Voting Irregularities Before 2020 Election is Certified\">attorney general<\/a> of California.<\/p>\n<p>Pressured by the rise of streamers, the traditional movie studios Paramount and Warner Bros. <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/2zzeR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pursued a merger<\/a> to make a giant studio with a deep library of media product. Oleaginous California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued to stop the merger, joined by other Democrat AGs, with a bunch of far-left idiots cheering him on.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Please let\u2019s circle up all the State AG\u2019s and talk about how this is going to kill completion in the industry and drive down wages, and product quality for consumers. There are lots of agents in Hollywood who can tell you how past mergers and consolidations have hurt their\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/V39Pq60gsp\">https:\/\/t.co\/V39Pq60gsp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MarkRuffalo\/status\/2027405033625538808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 27, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Running in the background was a debate over who controls the news. CNN is owned by Warner Bros. CBS is owned by Paramount. So a Paramount\/Warner merger gives Paramount ownership of two major news organizations, and Paramount is run by David Ellison. If you believe the legacy media, which you should never do, Ellison is a huge Trump supporter. Sample <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/obsessed\/trumpy-nepo-baby-david-ellison-clears-way-to-take-over-cnn-before-midterms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">headline<\/a> about the merger:<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Screenshot<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>         <span>Image Credit<\/span>Screenshot       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>So here\u2019s the spin: \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s MAGA billionaire ally David Ellison\u201d is seizing control of the news. Weirdly enough, David Ellison is a huge donor to Democrats, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2024\/04\/16\/biden-fund-gets-money-from-son-of-gop-donor-larry-ellison.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">poured cash<\/a> into Joe Biden\u2019s presidential campaign, but he doesn\u2019t make a loud public display of being homicidally anti-Trump, so legacy media journalists basically regard him as Trump\u2019s adopted son. Their standards of evidence remain interesting.<\/p>\n<p>Paramount responded to California\u2019s antitrust lawsuit by threatening to leave the state and set up shop in Tennessee, which brought Bonta running to the negotiating table. The result is not encouraging. You can read the consent decree that will <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/09\/21\/hollywood\/paramount-reaches-bombshell-settlement-with-california-ag\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">allow<\/a> the merger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heise.de\/downloads\/18\/5\/1\/6\/8\/9\/3\/7\/2026-09-21-244-exhibits-re-243-joint-motion-enter-consent-decree-and.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a> (marked as a \u201cdraft\u201d because it was posted before approval) or read Bonta\u2019s summary <a href=\"https:\/\/oag.ca.gov\/news\/press-releases\/attorney-general-bonta-announces-settlement-warner-brosparamount-litigation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In a condition that will be enforced by government monitoring, the merged company\u00a0\u201cagrees to a News Editorial Independence Board to help CNN and CBS maintain editorial independence.\u201d If the California Attorney General\u2019s Office feels that CNN and CBS aren\u2019t being <em>independent<\/em>, they can go back to court to enforce the consent decree. This condition is backdoor content monitoring, a First Amendment problem covered with the fig leaf of structural independence.<\/p>\n<p>More quietly, Bonta has kneecapped CBS News Editor-In-Chief Bari Weiss, who has faced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/06\/02\/60-minutes-scott-pelly-fired-00947902\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">internal dissent<\/a> over her decisions to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/12\/22\/g-s1-103282\/cbs-chief-bari-weiss-pulls-60-minutes-story\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hold or edit<\/a> stories. The consent decree requires the merged company to give the News Editorial Independence Board the authority to adjudicate newsroom grievances: \u201cResolving any disputes between CBS News employees, CNN employees, and management of the Combined Entity regarding alleged reporting bias or failure to meet agreed reporting fairness standards.\u201d So the next time Weiss decides a story isn\u2019t ready for <em>60 Minutes<\/em>, she faces a trial before an internal tribunal of career journalists. Good luck with that.<\/p>\n<p>In another remarkable concession, Paramount agreed, as part of an enforceable decree approved by a court, to finance and distribute a minimum number of annual movies:<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>         <span>Image Credit<\/span>Screenshot       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If Paramount doesn\u2019t make enough movies, they have to give the Teamsters a bunch of cash. See, that\u2019s not a shakedown at all.<\/p>\n<p>So who decides how much product a corporation should produce? California\u2019s top prosecutor. An office full of government lawyers has taken on the economic planning function, as if the litigation section in Sacramento will be meeting this week to decide how many bags of potato chips should be produced. Should we greenlight the <em>Avengers<\/em> sequel? Hold on, the attorney general has some creative notes.<\/p>\n<p>Entertainment industry journalists are framing the deal as a Bonta implosion, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MattBelloni\/status\/2102449462660731348\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">calling it<\/a> a \u201ccapitulation\u201d to Paramount from a weak negotiator. And Bonta is objectively quite stupid, so this is a fair argument. But this still is a dreadful agreement that expands the role of government into bizarre new territory. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Chris Bray is a senior correspondent at The Federalist and a former infantry sergeant in the U.S. Army. He has a history PhD from the University of California Los Angeles, not that it did him any good. He also posts on Substack, at &#8220;Tell Me How This Ends,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/chrisbray.substack.com\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats control TV news, says Gavin Newsom\u2019s aide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":2667618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bonta-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14890,4431,86074,5270],"class_list":["post-2667617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-entertainment","tag-legal","tag-powermove","tag-regulation"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bonta-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2667617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2667617"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2667617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2667626,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2667617\/revisions\/2667626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2667618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2667617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2667617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2667617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}