alt Hacker NewsParamount Caught Using 'Astroturf' Group to Drum Up Fake Support for Merger
Comments
The need to focus on making movies not money.
> In reality, mergers like this — particularly when involving Warner Brothers — have a long history of resulting in mass layoffs, higher prices, and lower-quality product as the merged company tries to pay down debt from the deal.
This is wrong. There are mass layoffs because you don't need 2 HR departments, 2 Accounting departments, and so on. You can often do away with lots of sales & marketing too, in some industries.
These are called "cost synergies" in M&A, and are basically the only synergies someone will give you credit for in a deal.
Debt financing is not required for there to be cost synergies.
Original article (linked in the submitted article): https://theintercept.com/2026/08/21/paramount-merger-warner-...
Teaching someone to recognize astroturfing is about as evil as teaching them to recognize bad kerning (insert relevant xkcd). You’ll destroy their blissful ignorance forever.
This should be illegal. Propaganda shouldn't be so pedestrian.
> Paramount’s also been caught using an “astroturf” — or fake grass roots organization
... except the article presents no evidence the organisation is fake.
Why, what the hell is the point? Why would the average person care about a merger?
Man... I am wondering how much of everything this is these days...
This is just one instance, but the propaganda effect I think is happening strong. I think probably all of public opinion is being manipulated like this...