Netflix CEO Ted Sarandosfound himself at the center of a culture war in Congress on Tuesday as he testified before a Senate subcommittee about the company’s bid to buy a large portion of Warner Bros. Discovery. The hearing before the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee highlighted a number of traditional merger concerns from both sides: that the deal could potentially raise costs for consumers, limit their moviegoing experiences or shrink the market for entertainment jobs.
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Much of the session also focused on Netflix's supposedly "progressive" content, including content featuring transgender characters. Netflix faces a competing bid from Paramount Skydance, led by CEO David Ellison , the son of President Donald Trump's close ally and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison .
WBD has rejected Paramount’s bid, but Republicans are pushing to exclude Netflix from the process. “Why should we give approval or a positive signal to make you the biggest content behemoth on the planet?” asked Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO). “It appears that you have engaged in creating not just a content monopoly, but the most progressive content monopoly in the history of the world.” After the subcommittee’s Ranking Member, Cory Booker (D-NJ), began questioning, following Schmitt by saying he would return to the antitrust issue, Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) countered that the content issue was relevant to the issue.
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“If there are people across America who are already struggling with their limited options,” he told the executives, “you suggest going even bigger, and maybe we should really talk about whether there will be options.” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) took a hard turn from asking whether Netflix would commit to using union labor and paying residuals for streaming content to asking, “Why does so much of Netflix’s content for kids promote a transgender ideology?”
Hawley claimed that “nearly half” of the content for minors, excluding older teens, “promotes a transgender ideology agenda.” Sarandos said he didn’t know where that claim came from and stated that “Netflix has no political agenda of any kind.” The French film Cuties was cited at length at the hearing as an example of oversexualized content for children.
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The film, which was created as a commentary on the sexualization of young girls and is rated for mature audiences, not children, has become a symbol of Netflix's allegedly ideologically driven library. Billionaire and Trump supporter Elon Musk previously led a campaign against Netflix for shows like Dead End: Paranormal Park and The Baby-Sitters Club for featuring transgender characters.
