Senate Republicans grilled Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos during a Tuesday hearing about the streamer’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. film and streaming divisions, calling the platform a “left-wing company” that has a history of pushing “wokeness” and “propaganda.”
The typically poised entertainment exec was visibly flustered as he faced a barrage of pointed questions about go-to GOP grievances around diversity, political bias and transgender representation in front of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) accused Netflix of having “long been a left-wing company” after a tangent about last Sunday’s politically charged Grammy Awards, which aired on rival media conglomerate Paramount Skydance’s flagship network CBS. Paramount Skydance is also jockeying to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, though shareholders rebuffed its offer early last month
After highlighting Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings’ record as a high-spending Democratic donor, Cruz took aim at one of WB’s biggest brands, asking Sarandos how audiences could feel “remotely confident” that the marriage between Netflix and Warner Bros. would not turn the two into a joint “propaganda outlet.”
“CNN is already a dumpster fire,” the Texas senator said of the news network, which has long been in President Donald Trump’s crosshairs. “There is nothing resembling objectivity. Nothing resembling journalism anymore.”
In response, Sarandos stressed that Netflix is an entertainment business at its core, telling Cruz that when subscribers fire up the streamer, “they are tuned in to be entertained” and pushing any political agenda would be a “bad business decision.”
Sarandos was also pressed to enter the culture war arena by Missouri Republican Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt.
Schmitt complained that “the overwhelming majority of your stuff right now is overwhelmingly woke, and it’s not reflective of what the American people want to see.”
“Both you and Netflix have made a habit of promoting DEI and wokeness,” he went on, saying the streamer’s content “is synonymous for the modern phenomenon of race swapping both historical and real and fictional characters.”
The typically poised Ted Sarandos was visibly flustered as he faced a barrage of pointed questions in front of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights on Tuesday.Sarandos, right, shook hands with Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley (R), left, after a contentious Senate subcommittee hearing about the streamer’s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
Hawley, meanwhile, asked why Netflix platforms children’s programming that “promotes a transgender ideology.”
Sarandos pushed back at both lines of questioning, telling the Show Me State senators, “We have a great deal of programming on Netflix for all left, right and center. We have state-of-the-art tools for parents to manage what their kids see on Netflix.”
Sarandos did not have to play defense for the entire hearing, as he took the opportunity to offer some touches of flattery, saying he believed President Trump’s scrutiny of the proposed $83 billion deal was fair.
“I think the President, from my experience, has been nothing but interested in protecting and creating American jobs,” Sarandos said, adding that he believes the merger “would stand on its merits” at the end of the day.
Trump appeared to signal he was siding with Paramount Skydance in the battle for Warner Bros. Discovery after the entertainment monolith delivered a hostile $108.4 billion bid for the companies in December.
Telling reporters any deal should hinge on promises to revamp CNN, Trump said, “I don’t think the people that are running that company right now, and running CNN, which is a very dishonest group of people, I don’t think that should be allowed to continue.”
