Mark Ruffalo is not stepping back.
Hours after Paramount accused him of invoking “antisemitic tropes” over his attack on the Ellison family, the actor posted a lengthy response on X calling the accusation “appalling and fundamentally dishonest.”
And he ended it with the demand the Warner Bros. Discovery merger “shouldn’t move forward” without a national security review.
Ruffalo’s full statement:
“The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract, or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel. To be clear, my views come from my own political convictions and should never be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people, for whom I have deep love and respect. Everything I know about acting, activism, and humanism has been profoundly shaped by the Jewish friends, colleagues, and loved ones who have been integral and family throughout every point of my life.
“This merger has real consequences for real people, and for the entire country. Scrutinizing the Ellisons, including Oracle’s business built on data, surveillance technology and government contracts, and the serious threat to editorial freedom and the loss of a livelihood for thousands of families, is fair and necessary. The $111 billion deal would hand one family control over CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., backed in part by foreign money whose influence on editorial decisions has never been fully explained to the public.
“Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for serious national security review, and regulators still haven’t given the public a real answer. Until they do, the merger shouldn’t move forward. Now is the time to dive boldly into all these issues, not step back or concede.”
The Foreign Money He’s Talking About
Per our previous reports and Deadline, Paramount has disclosed that total foreign ownership of the combined company would hit 49.5 percent, including 38.5 percent from sovereign wealth funds tied to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.
Any foreign stake above 25 percent requires FCC approval, and the agency has been taking public comment on Paramount’s petition.
Then there is Tencent.
Per Paramount’s own SEC filing, the Chinese giant dropped its $1 billion commitment to avoid triggering a CFIUS national security review, and per Bloomberg it later moved to re-enter at a lower amount.
The Defense Department lists Tencent as a Chinese military company, a designation Tencent denies. Tencent is also invested in Riot Games, Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, Ubisoft, SnapChat, Tesla, and more.
A Second Front
Bonta’s 12-state lawsuit is an antitrust case about output, prices, and jobs.
Ruffalo is pointing somewhere else entirely: Washington. The FCC petition and the CFIUS question run on their own tracks, separate from the March 2 trial.
This also landed the same weekend court-ordered settlement talks were set for Monday.
Ruffalo’s argument is that even if the states make a deal, the merger still shouldn’t close until the federal reviews happen.
Worth mentioning is that President Trump has been a vocal supporter of the Paramount deal, and at one time, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was an investor in the Paramount bid for WBD.
