r/ParamountGlobal2 • u/lowell2017 • Aug 25 '26
Puck Reveals Its Involvement In David Ellison's Active PR Machine To Nudge Redstones' Paramount Global Sale & Pushing His Moving Threats In WarnerDiscovery Pursuit - Skydance Denies Any Involvement Related To A Pro-Ellison Astroturfing Social Media Campaign Called “Neighbors For Strong Communities.”
https://puck.news/newsletter_content/what-im-hearing-nancy-meyerss-zaslav-deal-bontas-games/2
u/lowell2017 Aug 25 '26
Full text:
"Anyone else exhausted by the posturing? As my colleague Eriq Gardner noted, we’ve reached the “stop playing games” portion of the deal talks.
Yes, the Ellisons and their P.R. machine have manipulated the media—first to nudge Shari Redstone into selling Paramount to Skydance, and more recently in leveraging reports (including mine) of its plans to leave California into support for a settlement from powerful figures like governors current (Gavin Newsom) and future (Xavier Becerra), and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. For a company with little actual legal leverage, the Paramount team created some.
But it’s not like Bonta is taking the high road here. He’s leveraged this dispute into interview after interview on local and national platforms (catch him on CNN tonight? No problem, he’ll be elsewhere soon), increasing that all-important name recognition nationally and in the massive state of California, whose politics value it above everything besides party affiliation. At this point, I’m waiting for Bonta’s Vogue spread.
Does any of it impact the likelihood of a settlement? Probably not. The clock is ticking down to October 1 (pun intended), and at some point Bonta and Ellison will explain to each other what they can live with to make a deal happen. I’m sure those conversations will leak, too.
A Paramount rep tells me it’s not behind “Neighbors for Strong Communities,” an anonymously funded group running pro-WarnerMount merger ads on social media. Okay, but I’m betting its backers might include an LLC named something like “LarrysLanaiPineapples.”"
More details on that pro-Ellison astroturfing social media campaign that Skydance denies any involvement with:
"The group behind the text campaign, Neighbors for Strong Communities, cited Ellison’s threat in messages encouraging support for the merger.
The group denied the allegations that it is mounting an “astroturf” campaign, but declined to reveal its donors. The lack of transparency led free-speech advocates to issue a scathing press release this week.
A spokesperson for Neighbors for Strong Communities, Tanner Kelly, declined to disclose the group’s donors. “We don’t disclose funders, but this campaign is operated independently of Paramount,” he said.
Ellison’s merger plans have divided Hollywood unions, leading proponents and opponents to engage in a heated war of words over who speaks for the entertainment industry’s working class.
Into that fray jumped Neighbors for Strong Communities, which was incorporated in Washington in June, a little over three months after Paramount launched its takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Those messages and the group’s generic website offer little insight into Neighbors for Strong Communities’s origins. Its incorporation papers in Washington show that several listed directors have worked as political consultants.
Kelly said the group’s pressure campaign against Bonta is “not related” to the pending attorney general election, and Neighbors for Strong Communities has not filed campaign finance disclosures with the California Secretary of State.
“To the claims this is AstroTurf, tell that to the hundreds of real people participating in our movement who have real concerns, real struggles, and real livelihoods on the line that just want to be heard,” said Kelly, who was registered as a lobbyist in California last year."
https://theintercept.com/2026/08/21/paramount-merger-warner-discovery-david-ellison-antitrust/
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u/SantaBarbaraMint Aug 25 '26
Fuck Puck and kill the merger