Makan Delrahim, chief legal officer of Paramount Skydance Corporation, said on Monday that some opposition to the company’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is motivated by antisemitism, rejecting claims from press-freedom advocates that the deal would undermine journalistic independence to curry favor with U.S. President Donald Trump.
“There’s a lot of fear-mongering, particularly from people in Washington, D.C. They are running a political campaign,” Delrahim told the Los Angeles Times.
Delrahim, 56, an Iranian-American Jew who was born in Tehran and whose family immigrated to the United States after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, served as assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division during Trump’s first administration.
“Some of these people are trying to inflict harm on this transaction really because of their own antisemitic views,” he said. “Regulators and law enforcement officials will see right through that.”
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approved the Paramount Skydance deal in April, but the transaction, valued at over $111 billion, remains subject to regulatory approval in the United States and overseas. European Union regulators are expected to issue a decision next month.
The acquisition is being led by Paramount Skydance Chairman and CEO David Ellison, who is Jewish and recently spent two hours answering questions from Justice Department antitrust lawyers as part of the review process.
‘Desperate distractions’
The merger has come under fire from several left-wing groups, including the Freedom of the Press Foundation, whose board of directors includes actor John Cusack and Columbia University journalism professor Azmat Khan, both outspoken critics of Israel. The group has posted support for a recent New York Times column that claimed that Israeli officials train dogs to sexually assault Palestinian prisoners, expressed support for the Global Sumud Flotilla and accused Israel of a “massacre of journalists in Gaza.”
Seth Stern, the foundation’s director of advocacy, rejected Delrahim’s comments.
“I’m one of many Jews working to stop the Ellisons from throwing American journalism under the bus to appease Donald Trump,” Stern told JNS. “Delrahim’s comment is offensive and ridiculous.”
“What a schmendrik,” he added. “One of the most antisemitic things you can do is claim Jews are a monolith and should all fall in lockstep behind you.”
Stern told JNS that Delrahim should instead “address the Wall Street Journal’s reporting that the Ellisons promised Trump ‘sweeping changes’ at CNN in exchange for merger approval.”
“Nobody is falling for these desperate distractions,” he said.
Asked about Cusack’s service on the foundation’s board, Stern said, “Obviously if I thought John was an antisemite I wouldn’t work with him. If he had a problem with Jews, he probably wouldn’t work with me.”
“I happen to share many of John’s views on Gaza, but even if I didn’t I’d defend his right to express them,” he told JNS. “We’re a free speech organization, after all.”
The foundation has also alleged that CBS, under Ellison’s influence, has “repeatedly censored journalists or altered its coverage to please Trump and his allies” in exchange for government approval of the merger.
Delrahim denied any arrangement with the White House.
“There are no deals with the president,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “We have a deal with the Warner shareholders. We’ve submitted applications to the governments of Europe, Canada, the U.K. and the U.S., and that’s where it is.”
Last week, the Freedom of the Press Foundation released a letter urging regulators and lawmakers to oppose the merger. The letter argued that recent personnel and editorial decisions at CBS News, including the hiring of journalist Bari Weiss as the network’s editor-in-chief, suggest political interference and warned that the transaction should be viewed as “a political arrangement to circumvent constitutional safeguards, with severe consequences for American democracy.”
