Bumbling Time Warner CEO David Zaslav: What U.S. Media REALLY Needs Is More Mindless Consolidation And Deregulation

By now we’ve well established that the AT&T–>Time Warner–>Discovery series of media mergers were some of the dumbest, most pointless “business” exercises ever conceived.

The utterly senseless saga burned through hundreds of billions in debt, saw more than 50,000 people lose their jobs, killed off numerous popular brands (like Mad Magazine and HBO), created oceans of animosity among creatives, and resulted in a Max streaming service that’s arguably dumber and of notably lower quality than when the entire expensive gambit began.

The brunchlord in charge of much of that dysfunction, Time Warner CEO David Zaslav, has seen absolutely zero accountability for this chaos, and in fact has been broadly rewarded with a series of massive compensation packages that in absolutely no way reflect his competency.

Growth For Growth’s Sake

Last week the media industry announced yet another merger, with Paramount and Skydance the latest to tie the knot. The new company will be overseen by Larry Ellison’s son David, who received a $6 billion gift from dad to make the merger possible. Paramount had struggled with its ingenious strategy of charging higher and higher rates for lower and lower quality services, and eyed a merger as an executive escape hatch.

The Paramount Skydance merger is notably smaller than the Time Warner Discovery mess, but it still represents the media sector’s obsession with mindless consolidation. Consolidation that generally exists to (briefly) boost stock valuations, provide rich men tax cuts, and justify excessive compensation packages for fail-upward brunchlords easily impressed by their own savvy deal making abilities.

The king of those brunchlords, Zaslav, of course was bullish on the merger in comments to Bloomberg, despite companies making it very clear the deal will result in even greater layoffs and cuts. Talking about Paramount and the upcoming Presidential election, Zaslav proudly proclaimed that what the media industry really needs is a President who’ll embrace mindless consolidation and deregulation:

“We just need an opportunity for deregulation, so companies can consolidate and do what we need to to be even better.”

Again, this is a guy who just oversaw one of the most destructive and pointless consolidation efforts in modern media, with a company born from pointless consolidation, feckless antitrust enforcement, and mindless deregulation (AOL Time Warner). Bloomberg, and other major outlets reporting on his comments, apparently didn’t think that was useful historical context.

Media consolidation almost always ends badly for everybody other than executives. The huge debt loads created by such deals are always compensated by massive layoffs, quality control erosion, and higher prices for consumers. The consolidation also steadily drowns out independent and diverse media voices, resulting in a sort of bland homogenization that has very clearly now extended to streaming.

Media Consolidation Matters, And Both Parties Tend To Suck On Media Policy

This is all made possible, in part, by our steady erosion of any sort of media consolidation oversight. Recall the Trump FCC took an absolute hatchet to what’s left of media consolidation rules. And while it did oppose the Time Warner Merger (and failed), it did so as an anticompetitive favor for Rupert Murdoch and a middle finger to CNN, and not out of any legitimate worries about consolidation.

Democrats also have no real media policy, rarely think media oversight is really worth pursuing, and routinely also rubber stamp pointless mergers (like the Time Warner Discovery deal in 2022). They’ll at least occasionally give a nod toward the need for some guardrails, but it’s never a policy arena they’ll pursue with any real zeal, despite consolidation and propaganda’s clear impact on an informed electorate.

I like to play a little game every time there’s a major merger news cycle (whether gaming or media or tech). I like to head to Google News, read the first ten articles on a particular merger, and see how many — if any — can be bothered to point out that these deals almost always wind up harming employees and consumers. And how many can reference any history of empty promises related to past deals, often involving the exact same executives and companies.

There are thousands of academics and experts on media consolidation and merger mania that a reporter could talk to in order to flesh out their stories. There are ample, very recent examples of how these kinds of deals are generally a pointless dumpster fire that exclusively benefit the richest executives. Yet not only are these experts not asked to comment, these issues aren’t raised at all. Anywhere. Even as context.

These are the kind of business reporters who’ll lecture young industry upstarts endlessly about bias and ethics, yet genuinely can’t (or won’t) see how their relentlessly pro-business, pro-mindless deregulation framing of stories is dictated by billionaire ownership and consolidation, and routinely leaves readers painfully (and often intentionally) uninformed about the real-world impact of major business choices.

It gets especially ridiculous when media reports on itself. FOX, CBS/Paramount, ABC/Disney, NBC/Comcast) have all been pushing the FCC to eliminate restrictions and consolidate further in a bid for reduced competition and endless homogenization. Combine it with the rise of a very effective and well funded right wing propaganda ecosystem, and you’ve got yourself a real recipe for “success.”