It was a great year for Warner Bros. Discovery: Two of its movies (One Battle After Another and Sinners) are front-runners for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and it had a string of critical hits and box-office successes with Superman, Weapons, and A Minecraft Movie. But despite those wins, the media conglomerate—which also owns HBO and CNN—found itself up for auction with two aggressive bidders: Paramount and Netflix.

The Atlantic movie critic David Sims explains why this deal could be bad for the movies. And our staff writer Frank Foer lays out why this deal could be bad for democracy—especially if President Donald Trump gets involved.

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