AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, today broadcasting from Northern Visions TV in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The Trump administration has approved Paramount’s $111 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. On Friday, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division said that it saw no evidence that the media megamerger would harm consumers, writing instead the deal would, quote, “increase competition across the media and entertainment ecosystem,” unquote. If completed, the merger would consolidate two major movie studios, two top streaming services, and news outlets CNN and CBS News, as well as HBO — all under the control of the Ellison family. Paramount’s biggest shareholder is the billionaire Larry Ellison, a close ally of Trump. Paramount’s CEO is Ellison’s son, David Ellison. Last year, his company, Skydance, took control of Paramount, including CBS. Shortly after the Paramount-Skydance merger was approved, Ellison installed the right-wing journalist Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News. And we all know what happened next: the gutting of CBS’s premier news investigative hour, 60 Minutes, where the latest casualty was Scott Pelley, who was just recently fired.

To talk all about all of this and more, we’re joined by Craig Aaron, co-CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action.

Craig, talk about the significance of Trump’s Department of Justice approving the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.

CRAIG AARON: Thanks for having me, Amy.

What we saw happen on Friday was the Justice Department say they could find no reason to block this merger. And that’s because they didn’t look for one. This has been one of the most shallow and corrupt merger review processes we’ve ever seen, and it has been marked by Paramount, the leadership of Paramount, David Ellison, his father Larry Ellison, wooing and capitulating to the Trump administration at every turn, having them for fancy dinners, promising to make sweeping changes to newsrooms like CNN if they can get this deal to go through.

And the great risk here is so much media control under one umbrella, the idea that two of our major mainstream news outlets could be controlled by one company, which, as you said, has shown it is willing to warp and manipulate news coverage to please the president, the idea that HBO and major movie studios, again, falling under one corporate umbrella, raising serious questions about what projects are going to be made, what documentary films will be made, what information and news will we see if the Ellisons control this much of our news media.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about this in the context of all these corporate mergers, what it means when CNN, CBS, HBO are all under the same roof.

CRAIG AARON: Well, I think we’ve seen it happening at CBS. So, the Ellisons aren’t hiding the ball. They’re not really making any — the promises they’re making are to turn CNN into something like what they’ve done with CBS, where they’re getting rid of independent journalists asking hard questions. They’re spiking stories about crimes being committed by the Trump administration. And what they’re promising is more of the same. And every big media company that’s gone before this administration to get a deal done, to push through megamerger after megamerger, has promised — and because they know this is what appeals to Trump, they’ve promised them to change their coverage, get rid of activist journalism, get rid of the kind of independent accountability that we need. And they’re going for even the most mainstream types of outlets, like 60 Minutes, you know, a program that is well regarded but certainly not the source of any kind of radical coverage, but serious coverage when it comes to what’s happening in this country and around the world. And under the Ellisons, there’s no place for it. So, we’ve already seen what they’ll do. And what we don’t know what will happen is what programs no longer get made. We get fewer and fewer choices, and we get more and more of the same kind of cookie-cutter content produced.

AMY GOODMAN: Craig, we just have 20 seconds. What are you calling on states’ attorneys general to do, from New York to California?

CRAIG AARON: The important thing here, Amy, is this is not over. Just because the Trump administration abdicated their responsibility, the states have a responsibility to step in. Attorneys general can go to court, challenge this deal. The evidence is overwhelming that this is too much concentration and consolidation. State attorneys general in California, in New York, in other states need to take action to block this deal, because the Trump administration certainly isn’t going to do it.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you so much for being with us, Craig Aaron, co-CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action.

Thanks to everyone here at Northern Visions TV in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The film Steal This Story, Please! will premiere at Docs Ireland tomorrow in Belfast at the Queen’s Theatre. Check our website, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman in Belfast.