Netflix Attacked By MAGA Senator At WB Deal Hearing: “Wokest Content In History”

Unsurprisingly, Netflix was lambasted today at a Senate hearing for allegedly having “the wokest content in the history of the world” and pushing “propaganda” as the partisan claws came out quickly.

“Netflix has long been a left wing company,’ Senator Ted Cruz bluntly declared Tuesday at an increasingly contentious Capitol Hill hearing on the streamer’s $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros.

“How are people at home ..feel even remotely confident that if this merger happens, the combined entity would not simply be a propaganda outlet pushing one particular political view with much greater market power than you have now,” the ambitious Texas Senator rhetorically put to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos.

Expressing concern over “censorship in the media and censorship in Hollywood” and “hatred of Donald Trump,” Sen. Cruz was far from the only member of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust today to pound the MAGA drum and Sarandos.

Earlier, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MI) went after the usually perfect pitchman exec with allegations apparently pulled from a recent critical conservative analysis of Netflix. The senior United States senator from Missouri demanded to know “why is it that so much of Netflix content for children promotes a transgender ideology?” Sidestepping rather than pushing back, Sarandos said that the company has “no political agenda of any kind.”

Hawley’s fellow Senator from the Show-me state took a similar stance on the streamer.

“The overwhelming majority of your stuff right now is overwhelmingly woke, and it’s not reflective of what the American people want to see,” declared Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MI) to a visibly uncomfortable Sarandos. “Both you and Netflix both have made a habit of promoting DEI and wokeness. 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.”

“You’re the co-CEO,  you were the chief content officer, until recently,” the junior Senator from Missouri added grilling the exec. “Yes or no. Does Netflix stand by its content production decisions?”

“Senator Schmidt, we have a great deal of programming on Netflix for all left, right and center,” Sarandos replied. “We have state of the art tools for parents to manage what their kids see on Netflix.”

Whipping off MAGA litmus tests like DEI policies, support for diversity, Obama appointee Susan Rice being on the Netflix board, Sarandos support for candidates like Kamala Harris, and the controversial Cuties documentary, both Sen. Cruz and Sen. Schmitt seemed to be pulling directly from a recent report from Heritage Foundation spinoff the Oversight Project. That document painted Netflix “as holding an outsized role in socially engineering millions of Americans into a predisposition to accept preferred leftwing ideological dogma.”

Handing the 47-page report to the White House and Sen. Lee’s office, Oversight Project boss Mike Howell told Deadline exclusively earlier this week that “I don’t want Netflix to get bigger at all.  I want it to have less influence.”

To that, Sen. Schmitt went after Sarandos for progressive social media posts that Netflix put up in 2020 as the killing of George Floyd and other racial tragedies shocked the Covid-racked nation with some of the largest civil rights marches and protests in decades. Shaken, Sarandos tried to walk back the posts and sentiments. “Sir, we have no political agenda,” he insisted. “Posting something like that would be quite political, but I would agree, and I would say, I hope that wouldn’t happen again.”

The post from Netflix remains up on the company’s X feed, but it should also be noted the streamer was far from the only corporation to put up such material. Paramount and Warner Bros were among studios and streamers posting such BLM support six years ago.

From the other side of the aisle, ranking member Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) citied a “constitutional crisis” and “corrupt” system in America. To that, Booker returned to his earlier remarks about the wealth accumulation by Donald Trump — in this particular case, POTUS buying significant stock in Netflix just before WB accepted their big bucks bid.

After getting it from both sides, Sarandos seemed to regain his mojo and went more mini-MAGA than the GOP Senators.

The exec told the subcommittee (and a certain audience of one likely watching down Pennsylvania Avenue) that “I think its wholly proper for the President of the United States to talk to leaders of industry to discuss about the industries they’re running.” On sitting down late last year with Trump, who has been playing both sides of the Netflix vs Paramount battle for WB, the streaming exec told Sen. Booker and others that the White House meeting was not a meeting to talk specifically about the deal.”

While the Senate hearing today is mainly performative, as the subcommittee has little real power over a merger such as this, the administration, specifically the DOJ, hold the regulatory and legal keys to the WB kingdom for both Netflix and David Ellison’s Paramount — who are still pursuing WBD in a $108 billion hostile takeover bid.

“I think the President, from my experience, has been nothing but interested in protecting and creating American jobs,” Sarandos insisted Tuesday, emphasizing he thought the merger “would stand on its merits.”

“I really cannot comment on the President’s personal finances.” he weaved as Booker tried to pin an insider trading label and self-interest on Trump.

“I worry about the context in which this merger is going to be evaluated by actors that I do not think are independent,” Sen. Booker told the hearing and Sarandos near the end of the session. Clearly, with Paramount still Hail Marying to have WBD shareholders onside and a possible new richer bid always a possibility, this is so far from over.