Why the Paramount‑Warner merger threatens democracy

Since broadcasting began, American media policy has wrestled with how to support the information needs of a democracy.

[Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images]

Media critic Ben Bagdikian warned in 2004 that five corporations had accumulated “more communications power than was exercised by any despot or dictatorship in history.” More than 20 years later, a major media merger is bringing his warning back into focus.

Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery in October 2026 created a new company, Skydance Corporation. It now owns........

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