Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos walked into a political minefield Tuesday, facing Senate grilling not just about the streaming giant's blockbuster bid for Warner Bros Discovery assets, but about transgender characters and alleged liberal bias in its programming. The Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing devolved from traditional merger concerns into a full-blown culture war, with Republican senators questioning whether the company should be allowed to expand when it already produces what Sen. Eric Schmitt called "the wokest content in the history of the world."
Netflix thought it was showing up to defend a major media merger. Instead, Ted Sarandos got hauled into the latest front of America's culture wars.
The streaming giant's Co-CEO faced the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee on Tuesday to discuss Netflix's attempt to acquire significant Warner Bros Discovery assets, according to The Verge. What should have been a straightforward antitrust hearing about market consolidation, consumer pricing, and theater distribution quickly morphed into a referendum on transgender representation and alleged political bias in entertainment.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) set the tone early: "Why in the world would we give a seal of approval or a thumbs up to make you the largest behemoth on the planet related to content?" He went further, claiming Netflix had created "not only a monopoly of content, potentially, but the wokest content in the history of the world."
The attacks came from multiple angles. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) pivoted abruptly from questions about union labor and streaming residuals to demand, "Why is it that so much of Netflix content for children promotes a transgender ideology?" Hawley claimed that "almost half" of Netflix's content for younger children promotes this agenda, a figure Sarandos said he didn't recognize. The CEO pushed back firmly: "Netflix has no political agenda of any kind."
