Mark Ruffalo says peers didn't speak out about WBD-Paramount merger out of blacklisting fears

Last month, we ran a story about Paramount’s retribution against people who opposed its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, namely The Ankler and its columnist Richard Rushfield. Mark Ruffalo was a fan of the story, tweeting it out and writing on X that retribution has already started. “Trust them when they tell you they will use the power and this consolidation of media for political reasons,” he tweeted.

Now, Ruffalo and political commentator Matt Stoller have expanded on this premise with a new op-ed in The New York Times, laying out again the blueprint to stop the merger: Sign letters, encourage politicians and attorneys general to investigate and break it up. But what is perhaps most notable in the piece is the one claim about the existing open letter, which has accumulated nearly 5,000 signatures. “But the most revealing thing about that letter wasn’t the people who signed,” they write. “It was the people who didn’t. Not because they disagreed — because they were afraid.”

“There are many reasons to block this deal, but we now believe the most fundamental one is what we encountered when asking artists to use their voices: fear. A deep, ugly and pervasive fear of speaking out,” the article continues. “We heard time and time again from artists, when asked to sign this letter, that they supported it but were afraid of retribution.”

Still, the op-ed ends on an optimistic tone, noting that recent rulings regarding Ticketmaster and Live Nation, the Tenga/Nexstar merger, and against Google and Meta suggest that there is still hope of blocking the merger. Write Ruffalo and Stoller: “The oligarchs are still in charge. But they are starting to lose their grip on power.” You can read the whole article here.