On Friday, Warner Bros. Discovery announced it selected Netflix to acquire the company.

WBD CEO David Salazar and the WBD board should pause and ask a simple question: Is selling America’s premier storytelling institution to one of the most ideological companies on earth really the right thing to do?

To understand what’s at stake, you have to understand what WBD actually is.

WBD owns the entire HBO catalog, the 128 million subscriber strong HBO Max streaming platform–arguably Netflix’s single biggest rival–and some of the most culturally influential franchises in the world. Its library defines prestige television, shapes global entertainment, and reaches audiences Netflix has never been able to dominate on its own.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, warned that Netflix should never be allowed anywhere near a takeover of WBD. In a post on X, he stated that, “this potential transaction, if it were to materialize, would raise serious competition questions—perhaps more so than any transaction I’ve seen in about a decade.”

Not only have I warned about Netflix in the past, time and time again, so has conservative commentator Jack Posobiec. He was right when he said the deal will allow the Obamas to take control of the media and is an “obvious antitrust violation.”

Anyone who values real competition or cultural balance should agree.

A Netflix–WBD merger would be the largest cultural consolidation in modern American history.

Netflix already dominates global streaming, shaping what the world watches and increasingly how the world thinks.

WBD, through HBO Max and its unmatched premium catalog, is one of the only companies big enough to challenge it. WBD is not simply “another option;” it is the marketplace’s leading counterweight–the one platform with the brand, subscriber base, and storytelling power to keep Netflix in check.

Eliminating that rival won’t just give Netflix market share. It will also give Netflix near complete narrative control. And that’s exactly the problem.

Netflix is one of the most self-consciously woke companies in America. It injects progressive activism into nearly every show, series, or documentary it creates–and it isn’t subtle about it.

Netflix pushes cultural messaging middle America repeatedly rejects at the ballot box, yet it keeps lecturing viewers anyway. Whether it’s rewriting historical characters in “Queen Cleopatra,: injecting modern identity politics into “Bridgerton,” or pushing heavy-handed ideological themes into teen and family shows like “One Day At a Time” and “The Baby-Sitters Club,” the company acts as if it has a duty to make its programming as politically-charged as possible. They also had no problems pushing the disgusting film “Cuties,” that sexualized children.

Further, Netflix has never hidden its bias in politics. Reed Hastings, Founder, former CEO, and current executive chairman of the company, donated $2 million to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s illegal redistricting campaign in California this year–and $3 million to support Newsom when California held a recall election post-COVID in 2021.

That’s the Netflix’s prerogative. What isn’t its prerogative is using corporate muscle to swallow competing voices and narrow the entire marketplace of ideas.

WBD produces content for the broad middle of the country — from movies franchises like “Harry Potter” to “The Dark Knight” to apolitical, mainstream adventure programming like “MythBusters.”

HBO Max regularly rivals Netflix in awards, cultural influence, and prestige storytelling. And that is exactly why Netflix wants to buy it.

This acquisition is about eliminating the only competitor strong enough to force Netflix to innovate rather than dominate.

Even James Cameron, hardly a conservative stalwart, warned that letting Netflix absorb WBD would be a “disaster.”

As someone who chaired oversight hearings, I’ve seen what happens when powerful actors face no accountability.

When I questioned tech CEOs in Congress, they all swore they didn’t suppress viewpoints or manipulate speech. But the evidence told a very different story.

Now imagine giving one of those same companies control over the HBO catalog, the HBO Max platform, and a massive share of America’s creative output.

Netflix already sets the tone for entertainment. Swallowing WBD would let it set the rules too.

It’s no surprise, then, that reports indicate the Trump administration is monitoring the WBD sale closely to ensure the rules of competition are respected. If Netflix attempts to buy cultural dominance instead of earning it, regulators are prepared to act.

But WBD shouldn’t wait for the government to stop a bad deal. WBD’s board should simply do the right thing.

They should reject any acquisition that would diminish creative diversity, reduce competition, and hand one woke company a megaphone large enough to drown out every other storyteller in America.

Consumers don’t just need “choice” in the abstract. They need different voices, different values, and different perspectives.

Washington loves to talk about protecting competition and free expression. This is the moment to prove it–and WBD’s leadership should take the first step.

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