To the editor: Paramount’s Larry Ellison now needs to push on and purchase Warner Bros. (“Democratic lawmakers say Paramount bid for Warner raises ‘severe nationwide safety considerations,’” Dec. 10) He hopes to take action partly with newly coffered funds of $41 billion of fairness, greater than half of which might be supplied by the royal households of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
Meaning the involvement of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who, in keeping with a declassified 2021 intelligence report launched by the Biden administration, authorised the homicide of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose protection of the royal household wasn’t glowing. Jared Kushner’s non-public fairness agency, Affinity Companions, additionally has an possession stake within the providing.
Do we actually need these folks to have any affect on the content material and course of which tales get made and the way they’re obtainable to us?
The film enterprise is a enterprise — in fact it’s. However there was a time when satisfaction and duty for good movies walked hand in hand with revenue, when nice craftsmanship and imaginative and prescient was the collaborative purpose with field workplace returns.
If this group of billionaire businessmen takes management of Warner Bros. — and pursues a purpose of dominance by way of revenue and management — all of that might be misplaced. Nero is fiddling as Rome burns.
BJ Hegedus, Valley Village
