Free Press Flies Protest Banners Around Paramount Studios as a Struggling CBS Attempts to Woo Advertisers During ‘Upfront Week’

LOS ANGELES — On Wednesday evening, two mobile billboards and a plane banner exposing the dangers of the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger circled the Paramount Studio lot as the media giant attempts to woo advertisers to purchase spots on CBS’s fall primetime schedule. The annual pitch events, dubbed “Upfront Week” by the media industry, are critical to the success of the television industry and feature red-carpet parties and celebrity-studded appeals to advertisers.  

The protest billboards and banner, produced by Free Press, warn advertisers about placing their products on CBS, as it remakes itself into a mouthpiece for the Trump regime. If the Paramount Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery goes through, it would put outlets including HBO and CNN under the control of David Ellison and his father Larry, one of the richest men in the world.

Ratings at CBS News have plummeted since the Ellisons took over the network, installed a former Trump ambassador as a “bias monitor” and appointed Bari Weiss to be its editor in chief. There’s also been a steady exodus of newsroom talent as journalists and producers rejected Weiss’ heavy hand and what they have described as a lack of editorial independence from the White House.

The animated billboards feature headlines about political pressure, spiked stories and pro-Trump propaganda at CBS, alongside images of billionaire Larry Ellison and Donald Trump over the text: “What you support when you support Paramount/CBS.” The plane banner displays text: “Don’t spend $ on ads at ‘see b.s.’ news,” referencing a joke told by comedian Nikki Glaser while hosting the Golden Globes in January. 

The animated billboard design can be viewed here.

Getty images of the on-site action will soon be available here.

Earlier this week, more than 3,000 professionals across the film and television industry released an open letter declaring their opposition to the pending Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, which would place both studios — along with major news and entertainment outlets — under the control of Ellison family. Paramount’s $110 billion bid for Warner Bros. was aided by President Trump’s expressed preference to have his media-owning billionaire cronies shape the media message to support the White House’s authoritarian agenda.

The letter urges California Attorney General Rob Bonta and his colleagues in other states to consider legal action to block the merger before the Trump Justice Department rubber-stamps the transaction. 

Free Press Co-CEO Jessica González said:

“Companies buying ad spots at CBS this year are not just endorsing pro-Trump propaganda; they’re making a risky bet on an entity more concerned with appeasing the president than fixing its ratings crisis. The proposed merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery would result in unprecedented control of media companies in the United States, endangering thousands of people’s jobs and our democracy. This merger would mean huge job losses, higher prices, fewer choices and less opportunity and diversity in Hollywood.

“The Ellisons already own CBS and TikTok and should not be allowed to control CNN as well. They have already promised Trump that they’ll make sweeping changes to these networks given the chance, and we know what that means: firing journalists, killing important stories and replacing the news with pro-Trump spin and disinformation. The Ellisons don’t care about nose-diving ratings or silencing their own journalists if it means getting a merger done.

“The only reason the merger isn’t dead on arrival is that the Ellisons are making deals with a corrupt president who wants to control what we see and hear. But popular momentum to block the merger is growing. State attorneys general need to step in and political leaders everywhere need to speak out against this deal and what it will mean for our media and any chance we have for reclaiming and rebuilding this democracy.”

###