Republicans are trying to block Netflix from purchasing Warner Bros., and they're screaming "woke."
Netflix recently made an $82.7 billion deal to buy Warner Bros., and while Hollywood creatives are not happy with the merger, most people in the industry agree that Netflix is preferred over Paramount. The latter also put in a bid, but Warner Bros. rejected it.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos had to testify before a Senate subcommittee about the company's plan for Warner Bros. There are several reasons why a merger like this is detrimental. It could take away jobs in the entertainment industry, ruin movie theaters, and increase costs.
However, that's not what concerns Republican senators.
“Why in the world would we give a seal of approval or a thumbs up to make you the largest behemoth on the planet related to content?” Eric Schmitt of Missouri asked.
“It seems as though you have engaged in creating not only a monopoly of content, potentially, but the wokest content in the history of the world.”
"Both you and Netflix both have made a habit of promoting DEI and wokeness," he continued. "I’ll just give a few examples, Netflix content is synonymous for the modern phenomenon of race swapping, both historical and real and fictional characters.”
Paramount vs. "woke"
It's worth noting that the Trump administration would benefit greatly if Paramount were the company to buy Warner Bros. Paramount’s new chairman and CEO is David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, who is one of Trump’s biggest financial supporters.
With Ellison as the CEO and Bari Weiss as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, there's been a lot of recent right-leaning moves from the company. They've cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and recently pulled a 60 Minutes story about the poor treatment of deported Venezuelans.
With that in mind, it's not surprising to see MAGA republicans going after Netflix. The meaning of "woke" has been twisted in recent years, with the right now using it as a dog whistle to call out any content that is inclusive to the LGBTQ+ community or people of color.
In one of the biggest displays of hypocrisy in human history, Republicans seem hellbent on protecting the redacted names in the Epstein files while claiming the queer characters on TV are somehow bad for children.
For example, Sen. Josh Hawley asked, "Why is it that so much of Netflix content for children promotes a transgender ideology?”
The Internet reacts to Senator's "woke" comment
MAGA loves to hide behind the facade of Christian values to suppress art and inclusivity. Meanwhile, Trump is referenced 38,000 times. Naturally, people online have a lot of thoughts.
On Reddit's political subreddit r/politics, u/Lespaul42 writes: "What the [expletive] is he even referencing? What is the deluge of children programming they are accusing of pushing 'the trans agenda'? And what exactly is the content that they think is pushing an agenda?"
"One has to wonder - how much of this content do they think one needs to watch to make them trans?" u/hammerofspammer asked. "An episode? A season?" It's not exactly an epidemic.
u/Stillwater215 agreed: "Exactly this. The LGBT 'Agenda' is that they would like to exist without their humanity being denied. What he’s saying is essentially 'I don’t want my children knowing people like this exist'."
By that logic, u/LividTacos said, "I demand the universe remove the GOP because they don't align with my values."
On X, some users directed their ire toward Sen. Eric Schmitt. "Wow, @SenEricSchmitt turning an antitrust hearing into a rant about “wokeness” is a total abdication of responsibility," @Capisha55 wrote. "Disliking Netflix’s content isn’t evidence of a monopoly, it’s a misunderstanding of antitrust law & a waste of oversight time."
"@SenEricSchmitt - You’re mad at a business model you don’t understand, and a culture you don’t want to admit exists," echoed @enoughisbasta.
Meanwhile, @idbl_fanatic offered some good advice: "Here's an idea, if you don't like it, don't watch it."
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