David Folkenflik

Well, think about it.

This would be a Hollywood behemoth.

You'd have Warner Brothers Studios and Paramount Studios under the same roof.

You'd have Paramount Plus, the streaming property, which is a bit on the smaller side, paired with HBO Max, one of the dominant streamers coming from Hollywood.

You'd have CBS and CBS News with CNN.

and Comedy Central and Discovery and TBS and a bunch of other properties showing a lot of entertainment and sports.

This is going to be a major player in Hollywood intended to take on the streamers, not just Netflix, but also Amazon Prime and Apple to have, you know, a major force to walk into the future of streaming.

Well, it's got to go through review from the U.S.

Justice Department, given its combination of enormous media and entertainment assets.

But it's also got to go through regulation in Europe.

And, you know, those are not the only ones involved.

The state attorney general of California said he intends not only to review this, but potentially to sue to block this.

And there are other interested parties that could weigh in here.

So this is usually a very intense and significant scrutiny going on here.

And at the same time, you know, we live in a slightly different age.

Well, look, the Ellisons, David Ellison, his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, are very close to President Trump.

President Trump has made clear he cares very much about what happens to CNN.

You've seen the owners of The L.A.

Times, The Washington Post and the Ellisons themselves at CBS alter and reconfigure their news properties to placate Trump.

and his allies in the current moment.