Your Tax Dollars At Work: Senators Sidestep Antitrust Questions To Scold Netflix Over ‘Woke’ Content

Netflix visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday, and what was meant to be an antitrust hearing quickly devolved into something closer to a cultural skirmish with a side of performative political theater.

Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee to defend the company’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal that would fold Warner Bros. streaming and studio assets, including a century’s worth of IP, into Netflix’s already massive streaming empire. The price is north of $80 billion, and lawmakers made clear they were not inclined to wave it through without some intense scrutiny. At least, that’s how things started.

At the core of the hearing was a familiar question. Would combining Netflix with one of its biggest competitors reduce choice, raise prices, and squeeze creators and workers in an already consolidated industry? More simply, would the deal break anti-trust laws?

Republicans and Democrats alike pressed Sarandos on whether the deal would shrink the market rather than expand it. Sarandos stuck to his prepared message, one he’s been repeating for several months now, that the deal is “This deal is pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker, [and] pro-creator.”

That line of questioning, however, was repeatedly interrupted by a different performative concern. Several Republican senators, most notably Josh Hawley, used their time to question Netflix about its programming choices, arguing that the platform is pro-woke, especially its children’s shows that include LGBTQ characters or themes.

Hawley accused the company of pushing ideology, apparently identity is an ideology now, onto young viewers, and cited what he claimed were internal metrics showing a heavy emphasis on transgender topics in kids’ programming. He has a history of hijacking legitimate political issues to push his anti-woke agenda. In 2022, he exploited ongoing debates around copyright law to attack “woke corporations like Disney have earned billions while increasingly pandering to woke activists.”

Sarandos pushed back, insisting that those claims were inaccurate and saying Netflix does not have a political agenda. He emphasized parental controls and choice, stressing that families decide what to watch, not the platform. Still, the exchange underscored how little daylight there is now between government scrutiny and culture war rhetoric.

When not being dragged down into political theater, Sarandos sought to reassure the industry on a few key points that could hamper Netflix’s plans for WB. He confirmed that Netflix would maintain a 45-day theatrical window for Warner Bros. films and claimed the company has no intention of cutting production jobs or scaling back output if the deal goes through.

By the end of the hearing, legitimate antitrust questions had largely been drowned out by culture-war theatrics, a shame, since there are very real and extremely consequential questions that Netflix should be forced to answer before any deal is allowed to proceed. Now, the fate of the merger rests with federal regulators, who will decide whether one of the most consequential mergers in Hollywood history will survive.