A report painting Netflix as a left-wing indoctrination machine has been circulating in Washington as part of a coordinated effort to block Netflix’s Warner Bros. acquisition in favor of Donald Trump’s billionaire pal David Ellison.
According to Deadline, the report, which was compiled by The Oversight Project—the investigative arm of The Heritage Foundation, which produced Project 2025—accuses the streamer of “holding an outsized role in socially engineering millions of Americans into a predisposition to accept preferred leftwing ideological dogma.”
The report goes on to argue, “Relevant federal agencies must scrutinize with extreme intensity any potential Netflix acquisitions of other media and entertainment companies to take into account the full ramifications of the impacts on American society and the health of the Constitutional Republic.”
The report was distributed “to the White House and others,” Deadline reports, just before Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos is set to testify about the proposed merger before the Senate on Tuesday, where politicians will determine whether the acquisition would give Netflix too much power.
The streamer was in a heated bidding war over Warner Bros.’ streaming properties with Skydance Paramount, which has been trying to buy the company outright. Netflix’s deal would cover only HBO, HBO Max, and their content libraries.
Skydance gobbled up Paramount in an $8 billion merger last year, and with it CBS News, which Ellison has since remade in MAGA’s image by installing Trump-friendly journalist Bari Weiss as head of the network. Skydance Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. would include CNN, which would likely get yet another MAGA makeover, should the Netflix deal fall through and go Ellison’s way.
The Oversight Project, now independent of The Heritage Foundation, is seeking to make that happen, according to its 47-page report, which is subtitled “The Weaponization of Entertainment for Partisan Propaganda” and implicates Netflix directly. Examples of “left-wing propaganda” on the streamer include Stranger Things, Lena Dunham’s Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste, and the Obamas-produced documentary American Factory.
The report sums up the content as “FBI collaboration shows, hyper-sexualized LGBTQ+ children’s programs, and Russia hoax documentaries.”
The report declares, conspiratorially, that the “consistency” of the streamer’s content “suggests there may be intentional coordination with activist organizations and alignment with progressive political objectives.”
Oversight Project head Mike Howell told Deadline he wants the Senate to ask Sarandos, “How do you guard against the ideological and partisan composition of your board in terms of influencing content?” and if the Chinese Communist Party had “any role with the Obamas’ movie American Factory?”
Ironically, Sarandos has also come under fire for hosting right-wing content on the platform. He controversially did not remove Dave Chappelle’s comedy specials after internal backlash over Chappelle’s jokes about trans people, and has since extended offers for two more specials.
Comedian Marc Maron slammed the CEO in August, saying that “fascism is good for business,” before joking that “Netflix can become ‘Reichflix’ very quickly.”
