Jane Fonda Attacks Paramount-WBD Merger At Protest Event - "I Have A Personal Stake In CNN, I Don't Want To See It Go...

Source: Deadline

By Jill Goldsmith June 14, 2026 8:42pm

Jane Fonda, who was married to the late CNN founder Ted Turner, urged the audience at a live event in New York City to “sign a petition to tell your state attorneys general to block the Paramount Warner Brothers merger. This is a direct attack on free speech, freedom of expression.”

“You’re going to get a very thinned out kind of culture. It’ll be flattened. Freedom of expression, independence, and diverse news. I have a personal stake in CNN. I don’t want to see it go that way. You know what I’m saying,” she said at Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert For The First Amendment. It was held at The Town Hall on West 43rd Street, a 1920 venue built as the headquarters for the League for Political Education, and also livestreamed.

The event, presented by the Committee For The First Amendment, unspooled as UCF fighters traded jabs on the White House lawn for Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. The mixed martial arts league has a sweeping rights deal with Paramount.

Julia Roberts, Robert De Niro. Bette Midler, Ayo Edebiri, Tessa Thompson, Joy Reid and more joined activists, civil rights and religious leaders to excoriate ICE and defend free speech and the separation of church and state. Patti Smith perforrmed People Have The Power. Rufus Wainright sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow, whose lyricist Yip Harburg was blacklisted from working in Hollywood during the McCarthy era.


Jane Fonda at Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert For The First Amendment

Read more: https://deadline.com/2026/06/jane-fonda-paramount-warner-bros-merger-first-amendment-event-1236956101/