Does not subscribe to ATMA and it is entirely too late to stop AO3 from AO3ing but your reaction is sound. (Some of the ships such as Janeway/Seven of Nine not even described in that article are just wrong.)
I commented on that original article that essentially after 70 pages of "Heated Rivalry" the book I just shrugged. That probably was not even for Jon Hamm reasons. No one liked that.
“…which in turn could cripple theatrical exhibition fatally.” “ formerly known as NATO) is worried about.” NATO crippled? Somewhere there is a punchline…so I copied some of article and put it it into Gemini and got:
"With Paramount and Warner Bros. about to consolidate the domestic box office, poor NATO is finally facing the one thing it always feared: a massive internal collapse caused by a billionaire's 'art of the deal' that leaves NATO totally crippled and without any defensive backup."
Not bad. I’m hoping Sonny and team aren’t mad at me for feeding the copyrighted article into Gemini. Probably could tweak the joke some more.
The target is and has been those rotten radical libs at CNN who have nothing nice to say about King Donald of Queens.Had they only praised him as he deserved. Will the Ellisons separate the jewels from the sale and then form a cable company called Trump TV? That would please Him to no end.
Bonta should demand no CA layoffs as long as unemployment decreased to a set level for a fixed period of time, and no more layoffs than a fixed number per agreed upon period.
First of all, Paramount is over-paying big time for WB including paying for WB the breakup fee of $2.8 B that WB will owe to Netflix ($2.8 B!). The struggle for WB highlights three potentially very adverse developments: (1) the increasing market concentration in the media / entertainment market, (2) if Netflix had succeeded in acquiring WB, then what might ensue is a growing de-emphasis of the theatrical (“big screen”) experience in favor of streaming, and (3) if Paramount succeeded (which appears likely), then concern about the journalistic integrity of CNN, similar to what is happening with CBS.
It might have been interesting to see how Trump’s antitrust enforcers would have reacted if Netflix was the winning bidder (they apparently dropped out because the price got too rich). After all, Trump wanted Netflix to drop the prominent Democrat Susan Rice from the Netflix board or “suffer the consequences.” Only Trump would consider the makeup of corporate boards something the President should have control over.
I’m one of Sonny’s older readers and a fan of classic Hollywood films, so my fond memories (often seen on TCM and neighborhood art houses) of WB films include the gangster films of the 1930s with Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney and Paul Muni, the notorious pre-code film “Baby Face” with Barbara Stanwyck sleeping her way to the top….and getting away with it (!)….the great biographies “The Story of Louis Pasteur” and “The Life of Emile Zola” (with Paul Muni in both), the emergence of Humphrey Bogart as a major star in many WB 1940s films, e.g., “Casablanca” and “The Maltese Falcon,” and WB’s great cartoon characters, e.g., Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd. Alas, I suspect many readers of this post will not know what I am talking about.
Thanks for excellent commentary on the financial aspects of this “artful deal”. Daddy Larry is guaranteeing the deal for over $40 billion, so not only may CNN be controlled but I doubt HBO will televise the Broadway musical “Six”, the rock and roll sensation about a megalomaniacal king’s six wives (Henry VIII). Hits too close to home but at least Larry doesn’t behead them when the relationships end.
Trump likes old films too, after all, he’s been obsessed with trade and tariffs since the late 1980s when he lost an auction for the piano in the movie Casablanca to a syndicate from Japan. (See NYTimes May 15, 2019)
Follow-up: The price for WB’s shares is a 139% premium over its stock price of $12.54 as of mid-September 2025 when the offer was announced reflecting the “intrinsic” value of WB’s shares at that time. This is an enormous, almost unheard of, takeover premium (most are between 20-30%; these more modest premiums still, while creating value for target firm shareholders, usually lose value for acquiring firm shareholders) and will require enormous synergies, both from the more attainable cost synergies (however painful to employees; I know, I’ve been there) and the much less attainable revenue synergies.
Does this mean that CNN will become Fox Lite and Voldemort will triumph in "Harry Potter: Epilogue"?
But geee-zus! the money! I can't even conceive of $1bn let alone multiple billions. I mean, I budget in the $100s, not even $1,000s. Where do these astronomical sums come from?
I can't help but wonder how much of this is about applying the Bari Weiss karate chop to CNN. She's shown her formable skills at this with CBS lately. And Lord knows The Donald has had it in for the network since his first iteration in office. Now he finally gets a chance to grind their noses into the dirt? Is he that spiteful, to tell Ted Sarandos during their WH meeting "Go home to your Netflix. Your deal is dead. I want Larry & Son to do my media bidding from now on." And so with a retinue of foreign investors with big $$, and Donald in their corner, Paramount is the victor. None of this is business as usual, much less anything good for our free speech and fourth estate media. But of course very, very predictable in Trump II.
No need to square anything beyond her overt willingness to help bury our democratic right to free speech. She's a sell out to her roots. For reasons only she could know.
If they succeed in ending our democracy, I suspect she'll be pretty disappointed when they still don't invite her into their exclusive male-centric White Nationalist club. She will have served her purpose at that point.
I seem to be in the minority in supporting Netflix. While I understand the anti-streaming reasons that Cameron and company espouse, it reads more to me like elderly gentlemen shaking their canes at the sky bc they struggle with change. Change is inevitable. The way we as a society consume entertainment has been evolving, even prior to covid tho that period did hasten things somewhat. In my opinion, we have more to fear from far right sycophants controlling our news & entertainment options than movie theater experiences becoming more niche.
I am supporting Netflix too, even though it is big tech and Scott Galloway says boycott it. I am not giving up all our streaming services because we have negotiated this in our family. Netflix has not bent the knee to Trump and that make them heroes in my opinion.
Ethan Suplee! Nice guy. Ages ago I worked on the crew of the Kevin Smith-produced film Vulgar, in which he had a supporting role. If memory serves, the man had some excellent stories from the set of American History X...
Does not subscribe to ATMA and it is entirely too late to stop AO3 from AO3ing but your reaction is sound. (Some of the ships such as Janeway/Seven of Nine not even described in that article are just wrong.)
I commented on that original article that essentially after 70 pages of "Heated Rivalry" the book I just shrugged. That probably was not even for Jon Hamm reasons. No one liked that.
I was very upset that I might have to admit in front of *Arielle Angel* that I was missing an important chip somewhere.
I know i'm super late to the party, but Haute Tension is sooooooo fucking great <3 <3 <3
I remember getting it from Netflix in a mail and return DVD sleeve and just falling in love.
10/10 use of a concrete saw.
The ending is RIDICULOUS but I did enjoy it!
I wonder if you've watched 2073 and what your review is?
“…which in turn could cripple theatrical exhibition fatally.” “ formerly known as NATO) is worried about.” NATO crippled? Somewhere there is a punchline…so I copied some of article and put it it into Gemini and got:
"With Paramount and Warner Bros. about to consolidate the domestic box office, poor NATO is finally facing the one thing it always feared: a massive internal collapse caused by a billionaire's 'art of the deal' that leaves NATO totally crippled and without any defensive backup."
Not bad. I’m hoping Sonny and team aren’t mad at me for feeding the copyrighted article into Gemini. Probably could tweak the joke some more.
Anderson Cooper.should keep his bags packed. He'll be a local news anchor in Akron Ohio by the end of the year.
The target is and has been those rotten radical libs at CNN who have nothing nice to say about King Donald of Queens.Had they only praised him as he deserved. Will the Ellisons separate the jewels from the sale and then form a cable company called Trump TV? That would please Him to no end.
European regulators must also sign off. The chances of that happening are slim and none and Slim just left town.
Bonta should demand no CA layoffs as long as unemployment decreased to a set level for a fixed period of time, and no more layoffs than a fixed number per agreed upon period.
Jeebus, what's next? Oligarch takeovers of the publishing houses?
"They are eating the journalists, they're eating the books!"
First of all, Paramount is over-paying big time for WB including paying for WB the breakup fee of $2.8 B that WB will owe to Netflix ($2.8 B!). The struggle for WB highlights three potentially very adverse developments: (1) the increasing market concentration in the media / entertainment market, (2) if Netflix had succeeded in acquiring WB, then what might ensue is a growing de-emphasis of the theatrical (“big screen”) experience in favor of streaming, and (3) if Paramount succeeded (which appears likely), then concern about the journalistic integrity of CNN, similar to what is happening with CBS.
It might have been interesting to see how Trump’s antitrust enforcers would have reacted if Netflix was the winning bidder (they apparently dropped out because the price got too rich). After all, Trump wanted Netflix to drop the prominent Democrat Susan Rice from the Netflix board or “suffer the consequences.” Only Trump would consider the makeup of corporate boards something the President should have control over.
I’m one of Sonny’s older readers and a fan of classic Hollywood films, so my fond memories (often seen on TCM and neighborhood art houses) of WB films include the gangster films of the 1930s with Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney and Paul Muni, the notorious pre-code film “Baby Face” with Barbara Stanwyck sleeping her way to the top….and getting away with it (!)….the great biographies “The Story of Louis Pasteur” and “The Life of Emile Zola” (with Paul Muni in both), the emergence of Humphrey Bogart as a major star in many WB 1940s films, e.g., “Casablanca” and “The Maltese Falcon,” and WB’s great cartoon characters, e.g., Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd. Alas, I suspect many readers of this post will not know what I am talking about.
Thanks for excellent commentary on the financial aspects of this “artful deal”. Daddy Larry is guaranteeing the deal for over $40 billion, so not only may CNN be controlled but I doubt HBO will televise the Broadway musical “Six”, the rock and roll sensation about a megalomaniacal king’s six wives (Henry VIII). Hits too close to home but at least Larry doesn’t behead them when the relationships end.
Trump likes old films too, after all, he’s been obsessed with trade and tariffs since the late 1980s when he lost an auction for the piano in the movie Casablanca to a syndicate from Japan. (See NYTimes May 15, 2019)
Follow-up: The price for WB’s shares is a 139% premium over its stock price of $12.54 as of mid-September 2025 when the offer was announced reflecting the “intrinsic” value of WB’s shares at that time. This is an enormous, almost unheard of, takeover premium (most are between 20-30%; these more modest premiums still, while creating value for target firm shareholders, usually lose value for acquiring firm shareholders) and will require enormous synergies, both from the more attainable cost synergies (however painful to employees; I know, I’ve been there) and the much less attainable revenue synergies.
Does this mean that CNN will become Fox Lite and Voldemort will triumph in "Harry Potter: Epilogue"?
But geee-zus! the money! I can't even conceive of $1bn let alone multiple billions. I mean, I budget in the $100s, not even $1,000s. Where do these astronomical sums come from?
I can't help but wonder how much of this is about applying the Bari Weiss karate chop to CNN. She's shown her formable skills at this with CBS lately. And Lord knows The Donald has had it in for the network since his first iteration in office. Now he finally gets a chance to grind their noses into the dirt? Is he that spiteful, to tell Ted Sarandos during their WH meeting "Go home to your Netflix. Your deal is dead. I want Larry & Son to do my media bidding from now on." And so with a retinue of foreign investors with big $$, and Donald in their corner, Paramount is the victor. None of this is business as usual, much less anything good for our free speech and fourth estate media. But of course very, very predictable in Trump II.
Still trying to figure out how Bari Weiss squares being a Jewish lesbian with the white Christian Nationalist fascism she's gone all-in to support.
No need to square anything beyond her overt willingness to help bury our democratic right to free speech. She's a sell out to her roots. For reasons only she could know.
If they succeed in ending our democracy, I suspect she'll be pretty disappointed when they still don't invite her into their exclusive male-centric White Nationalist club. She will have served her purpose at that point.
Sure, but right now she's riding high. With no idea what will come next for her and so many others, apres le deluge.
I ONLY support PBS ... Public Broadcasting Service is an American broadcaster and non-commercial free-to-air television network.
At this point....I No Longer Stream Anything Else.
Been like this for a couple of years and I DON'T MISS ANYTHING important.
Very well said, neither deal was desirable, but this is worse by a long shot.
“Not like this. Not like this.”
So, in addition to boycotting Paramount, or rather discontinuing it, we now also are boycotting Warner Bros too.
I seem to be in the minority in supporting Netflix. While I understand the anti-streaming reasons that Cameron and company espouse, it reads more to me like elderly gentlemen shaking their canes at the sky bc they struggle with change. Change is inevitable. The way we as a society consume entertainment has been evolving, even prior to covid tho that period did hasten things somewhat. In my opinion, we have more to fear from far right sycophants controlling our news & entertainment options than movie theater experiences becoming more niche.
I am supporting Netflix too, even though it is big tech and Scott Galloway says boycott it. I am not giving up all our streaming services because we have negotiated this in our family. Netflix has not bent the knee to Trump and that make them heroes in my opinion.
Ethan Suplee! Nice guy. Ages ago I worked on the crew of the Kevin Smith-produced film Vulgar, in which he had a supporting role. If memory serves, the man had some excellent stories from the set of American History X...