David Ellison controls Paramount. He controls Warner Bros. Discovery. He hired Bari Weiss to reshape CBS News. And on Monday, after twelve Democratic state attorneys general spent months trying to block the deal, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a settlement — and the $111 billion merger got the green light.
The AGs wanted to stop it. They didn't.
The settlement resolves the antitrust lawsuit the coalition brought, arguing the merger would dangerously concentrate power across film, television, streaming, and news. What they got in exchange for dropping the case: a "News Editorial Independence Board" that can write guiding principles for CNN and CBS News, with no authority over who actually runs either newsroom. David Ellison already decided that — and he decided Bari Weiss.
The opposition coalition's own statement captured the outcome plainly: "An agreement based only on unenforceable concessions is a win only for David Ellison." That's Ellison's critics saying it. Not his lawyers.
Bonta settled because the math favored settling. A trial was set for March, which would have left the deal in limbo through mid-2027. Ticking fees were set to hit Paramount starting October 1. Antitrust cases against media mergers are hard to win. Bonta knew all of this — his own words at the press conference made clear he didn't want to be standing at that podium. "The settlement is not a vote of support for this merger," he said. "Broadly speaking, we believe further consolidation in markets that are central to American economic life doesn't serve the American economy, consumers, or competition well."
The man who settled also believes the merger should not exist. He settled anyway, because the alternative was losing.
What Paramount committed to: at least 30 films per year in domestic theaters, $300 million in additional annual U.S. film production investment — $1.5 billion over five years — and a $47.5 million fund for displaced workers. The Writers Guild settled separately, securing a five-year prohibition on writer layoffs at CBS News's broadcast team and $17.5 million toward its health fund. If Paramount releases fewer than 30 films in a year, it faces a $30 million per-film penalty with 90 percent going to workers, and risks being forced to divest Miramax.
Those are meaningful commitments to American workers and American production — exactly the kind of terms you agree to when you're confident you can meet them.
The editorial independence board will write principles. Ellison will decide who delivers them. Its members get three-year terms and 180 days to stand up the operation. They can produce documents with words like "accuracy" and "independence" in them. Hiring and firing decisions at CNN and CBS News remain entirely with Ellison's management. The oversight California's AGs wanted most — control over the editorial direction of two of the most influential news organizations in the country — went to Ellison, not to a panel of journalists.
Mark Ruffalo — who played the Hulk in several films distributed by entities now under Ellison's control — publicly urged Bonta not to settle. "Don't you dare," he posted. Bonta settled.
Bonta had accused Paramount of leaking settlement discussions and misrepresenting their content. He canceled an August meeting over it. He called their conduct bad faith. Then he shook hands on a deal that lets Ellison run his newsrooms exactly as he always intended.
The people most alarmed by this merger are alarmed for a reason that has nothing to do with antitrust: they believe David Ellison will make CNN and CBS News more balanced, more willing to challenge progressive orthodoxies, more like what Bari Weiss was hired to build at CBS. That fear is not a legal argument. California's attorneys general spent months dressing it up as one.
They failed. The merger proceeds. David Ellison already has the keys.