Jane Fonda Op-Ed: The WBD Deal Puts Hollywood, and Democracy, at Risk

What terrifies me — and should terrify anyone who cares about a free society

CREATIVE CRISIS Hollywood consolidation makes it harder for workers to bargain, harder to stand up for themselves and harder to make a living at all, Fonda writes. (The Ankler illustration; image credits below)

Jane Fonda is a two-time Oscar-winning actress, producer and activist. She earlier appeared on The Rushfield Lunch to announce the relaunch of the Committee for the First Amendment.

As I write this, the future of the entertainment industry is being negotiated behind closed doors. Warner Bros. Discovery is preparing for its sale, and every artist I know — from actors to writers to journalists— is glued to the trades, whispering in hallways, wondering: Which company will buy WBD? Netflix? Paramount Skydance? Comcast NBCUniversal? A sovereign wealth fund from the Middle East? Something else entirely? And what will it mean for all of us?

We don’t know which company Warner Bros. Discovery will choose as its new owner. We don’t know what price will be paid or who will be left standing afterward. 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.

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.

For actors, writers, directors, editors, designers, animators and crew already fighting for work, consolidation will lessen the overall demand for their skills. And when only a handful of mega-companies control the entire pipeline, they gain the power to steamroll every guild — SAG-AFTRA, the WGA, the PGA, the DGA, IATSE, everyone — making it harder for workers to bargain, harder to stand up for themselves and harder to make a living at all.

But as dangerous as the economic fallout could be, it is not what scares me most. What terrifies me — and should terrify anyone who cares about a free society — is how this administration has used anticipated mergers as tools of political pressure and censorship.

We’ve already seen this at work. During the Skydance-Paramount merger proceedings, the Chairman of the FCC launched an investigation into 60 Minutes over routine editing of an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris — a move his own predecessor said was “fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment.” Paramount then paid the sitting president $16 million to settle a lawsuit widely considered meritless; installed a former administration ambassador as a “bias monitor” overseeing editorial content at CBS; and eliminated all diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Shortly after Stephen Colbert criticized the company’s political capitulation, he was fired. Then came nearly 2,000 layoffs across the company and the elimination of CBS’ Race and Culture Unit.

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.

We saw the pattern repeat with Nexstar, which is pursuing an acquisition of Tegna. After the FCC Chairman publicly attacked Jimmy Kimmel, Nexstar — which will require support from the FCC to complete its transaction — became the first broadcaster to pull Kimmel’s show from its ABC affiliate stations. Again, this is not a coincidence. It’s bootlicking.

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.

I know that members of our industry are terrified to speak up because it could entail criticizing the very companies their livelihoods depend on or might depend on in the future. And all of this is unfolding at a moment when our industry is already on its knees: recovering from historic strikes, wildfires that shut down productions, and relentless layoffs and bracing for the effects of AI advancement. Opportunities are evaporating. Middle-class careers are disappearing. People are fighting for scraps.

The stakes are high. But when we stand together, we are powerful. We can insist — together — that the First Amendment is not a bargaining chip to be traded away during a merger review process or meritless lawsuit negotiations. And we must demand that the Justice Department and state attorneys general evaluate every proposed entertainment merger for compliance with antitrust laws. These reviews cannot be treated as procedural formalities or political leverage; they are the last line of defense against media consolidation that threatens competition, creative freedom, and democratic discourse.

My father, Henry Fonda, and others built the Committee for the First Amendment when artists were being jailed, blacklisted and silenced during the Red Scare. They understood that the only antidote to fear is solidarity. We recently relaunched the Committee, which now has over 2,000 members across the entertainment industry, because the only way to fight back is collectively.

And if we don’t speak now, we may have no industry — and no democracy — left to defend.

We don’t yet know which company will buy Warner Bros. Discovery. But we do know what’s at stake: our jobs, our creative freedom and the constitutional promise that every American has the right to speak, report, criticize, satirize, investigate and imagine without fear.

This is not a partisan fight. It is a fight for our creativity, our livelihoods and our most fundamental rights as Americans.

I choose to stand up. I hope you will join me.

Image credits: Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images; AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images