January 1, Hollywood Star FIRES BACK After Shocking Smear Campaign

Wyatt’s Take

• Marvel actor Mark Ruffalo called out by Paramount for criticizing massive corporate merger — immediately branded with the antisemitism smear
• Ruffalo raised concerns about surveillance tech and foreign influence in $111 billion deal that would give one family control of CNN, HBO, and Warner Bros
• The playbook is clear: Question the powerful, get labeled a bigot — it’s the oldest trick in the corporate-political handbook

Actor Mark Ruffalo isn’t backing down after Paramount tried to paint him as an antisemite for raising red flags about a massive corporate merger. The Marvel star fired back hard against what he called an “appalling and fundamentally dishonest” accusation.

“The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest,” Ruffalo said Saturday.

“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,” he added.

The controversy started when Ruffalo questioned the Ellison family’s proposed Warner Bros. Discovery merger. He reposted video of Paramount board member Safra Catz discussing the “really profoundly scary technologies” that Oracle — co-founded by Larry Ellison — provided to the Israeli military after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks.

Ruffalo wrote of Oracle, “This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David’s Warner Bros acquisition.”

“These ‘really profoundly scary technologies’ will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you. Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle,” he added in part.

That’s when Paramount brought out the heavy artillery. A company spokesperson fired back hard, claiming Ruffalo was using “antisemitic tropes” in what should be just a business dispute.

“Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong — they’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe.”

The spokesperson added that the company does not “tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.”

But Ruffalo wasn’t having it. In his Saturday response, he laid out exactly why Americans should be worried about this merger — and it has nothing to do with anyone’s religion.

“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,” he said.

“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 potential merger is being challenged by a coalition of 12 state attorneys general. The companies have agreed not to close the deal until June 1, 2027, or until after a court decision on the states’ claims, whichever comes first.

Wyatt Matters

Here’s what working Americans need to understand: When you question corporate power, when you ask about foreign influence, when you wonder why one family needs to control that much of what we watch and read — the smear machine kicks into gear. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Hollywood liberal or a conservative columnist. The playbook is the same: call you a bigot, try to shame you into silence, and hope everyone forgets about the real questions. Ruffalo might not share our politics, but he’s asking the right questions about surveillance tech, media consolidation, and who really pulls the strings. Those questions don’t stop being important just because someone throws around ugly labels.