Jane Fonda led a rally near the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. to protest against the pending Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger and Donald Trump's attacks on the media. The event was held to defend free expression and political intimidation, institutional capture, and censorship across the arts, culture, and media. Fonda included actors and performers such as Joan Baez, Billy Porter, Maggie Rogers, Rupi Kaur, Sam Waterston, Griffin Dunne, Crys Matthews and Kristy Lee, and writers Ann Patchett and Bess Kalb. She warned against attacks on artists, writers, and journalists as being “page one in the authoritarian playbook” and warned that if we didn’t fight back, news and films would be increasingly fake. Paramount CEO David Ellison defended the merger, arguing that it would boost film output. The transaction is being reviewed by the Justice Department and California Attorney General Rob Bonta.