Jane Fonda Blasts Paramount-WBD Merger: 'This Is A Direct Attack On Free Speech, Freedom Of Expression'

Oscar-winning actress and activist Jane Fonda called on the audience at a live event in New York City to “sign a petition to tell your state attorneys general to block the Paramount Warner Brothers merger. This is a direct attack on free speech, freedom of expression.”

“You’re going to get a very thinned out kind of culture. It’ll be flattened. Freedom of expression, independence, and diverse news. I have a personal stake in CNN. I don’t want to see it go that way. You know what I’m saying,” she underlined at Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert For The First Amendment. It was held at The Town Hall on West 43rd Street, a 1920 venue built as the headquarters for the League for Political Education, and also livestreamed.

The proposed merger would bring together two of Hollywood's largest studios and content libraries while uniting streaming platforms Paramount+ and HBO Max. The companies are planning to fold their streaming services into a single platform.

The U.S. Department of Justice said it had cleared Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent of CNN. Paramount owns CBS, whose news division has been in near constant turmoil since the Ellisons took the reins. The deal still needs approvals from the EU and UK. Attorneys General can’t block a merger but they may sue to try to block it.

Fonda has also been previously vocal in her opposition of the merger. A month back, while appearing at the opening-night film of the 2026 TCM Classic Film Festival, she denounced the merger, which she emphasised was undercutting independent cinema vanguard Robert Redford's vision.

Fonda circled back to that idea at the end of her conversation with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz. “When I look at what’s happening in this town, when I look at the pending mergers, if that goes through we’re going to lose what Bob was trying to do,” she said, to resounding applause from the full house at the TCL Chinese Theatre. “The diversity, the complexity, the nuance… We have to fight. I want to fight in the spirit of Robert Redford.”

In April, Fonda was among the signatories of an open letter directed against the merger, which said it would result in fewer opportunities for creators, pressure on jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs and less choice for audiences. The letter had the might of over a thousand actors, industry professionals and filmmakers.