Trump Demands Firing Of Netflix Board Member For Suggesting U.S. Corporations Might Someday Be Held Accountable

from the everything-is-very-stupid dept

We’ve noted repeatedly how Trump wants to scuttle Netflix’s proposed merger with Warner Brothers because his friend and key donor, billionaire Larry Ellison wants to buy Warner Brothers (and CNN) instead. In fact the two have already purportedly met to discuss which CNN anchors they’d like to fire once Larry (who just bought CBS and part of TikTok) gains control.

To move this project along, MAGA has launched a lazy agitprop campaign across right wing media lamenting Netflix’s purported “wokeness.” Trump’s DOJ has also launched a fake antitrust inquiry into the Netflix Warner Brothers merger under the pretense that they’re “trying to protect the public interest” (they’ve issued no such statements of concern about the proposed Paramount deal, of course).

Now Trump has started openly calling for the firing of Netflix board member Susan Rice. Her crime? Apparently issuing some public words of caution to corporations that have broken the law during Trump’s reign, reminding them there may be accountability under future Democratic administrations:

“Rice said, “If these corporations think that the Democrats, when they come back in power, are going to, you know, play by the old rules, and, you know, say, ‘Oh, never mind. We’ll forgive you for all the people you fired, all the policies and principles you’ve violated, all, you know, the laws you’ve skirted.’ I think they’ve got another thing coming.”

That Democrats will hold corporations meaningfully accountable for crimes and misbehaviors during Trump’s tenure certainly isn’t any sort of guaranteed mathematics. Centrist Democrats like to dabble in regulatory performance, but meaningfully, consistently, and effectively standing up to corporate power has never been what you’d call a strong suit for party leadership.

What triggered Donald’s latest toddler moment? Apparently a post by right wing extremist Laura Loomer on Elon Musk’s right wing propaganda website:

“In his Truth Social post, Trump linked to an X post from far-right activist Laura Loomer, who wrote that Rice is “threatening half of the country with weaponized government political retribution.” She also forecast that if Netflix is allowed to acquire Warner Bros., “positive messaging of the Democrats’ upcoming witch hunts against Trump from Barack Hussein Obama and his anti-White racist wife Michelle would likely be blasted across all streaming services.”

This ties in to the broader campaign to lie and claim that Netflix (an opportunistic company that airs whatever makes money regardless of ideology) is somehow left wing, to better bolster the argument that Larry Ellison and U.S. autocratic allies should control the entirety of U.S. media instead.

Trump and Trump Republicans have zero credibility whatsoever on antitrust or competition issues. The Trump DOJ gambit is being conducted entirely in bad faith. But as our corporate media consolidates, you may notice they’re utterly incapable of communicating that to readership. Which is to say our shitty press is going to help sell the Trump and Ellison con here:

As always there’s a lot of projection going on. Ellison really does want to gobble up the lion’s share of U.S. media and shovel his right wing ideology down the public’s throat (See: CBS). It’s very clear he and other members of MAGA aspire to the kind of autocratic-media model seen in Orban’s Hungary, where most outlets are owned by the autocrats’ closest allies and pepper the public with agitprop 24 hours a day.

Ideally you’d block all additional media consolidation, as it almost always results in mass layoffs, higher prices, and lower quality product. That said, Trump’s fake-populist regulators aren’t going to do that, and combating fascism requires some strange bedfellows. So if the country’s choice is homogenized Netflix cack or autocrat-friendly state television, it’s not really much of a choice at all.

Filed Under: competition, donald trump, larry ellison, media, mergers, propaganda, state television, streaming, susan rice, video, woke

Companies: netflix, warner bros. discovery