Jane Fonda steps in to defend Mark Ruffalo from Paramount "smears"

This is per a statement put out today by The 1A Committee, a free-speech advocacy group that Fonda founded last year, and which Ruffalo is a member of. In the statement, Fonda defended Ruffalo’s “right to speak out about politics, powerful corporations and this dangerous merger,” writing, “Calling his criticism antisemitic is a smear to delegitimize criticism of the merger and to distract from the question Paramount would rather not answer: should one company be allowed to accumulate this much power over our movies, television and news?” Fonda was joined in her statement by 1A Committee Steering Committee member and Oscar-winning film producer Bruce Cohen, who wrote that, “Especially as a Jewish American, I find it deeply troubling to see false accusations of antisemitism used to silence legitimate political criticism in this country. Antisemitism is real and dangerous, which is precisely why the charge should never be used as a cudgel against people whose political views you dislike, in this case as dedicated a crusader for democracy as Mark, whom we are proud to have as a Committee member and to be in this fight with.”  

Fonda—who recently spoke, in less politically heavy waters, in tribute of her friend and former co-star Dolly Parton—and her group have been loud and early critics of the Paramount/Warner Bros. merger. Although, to be fair, Fonda was also publicly critical back when it was Netflix, not the Trump-adjacent Ellisons, trying to buy the studio. In a previous statement, the group called that earlier purchase attempt “an alarming escalation of the consolidation that threatens the entire entertainment industry, the democratic public it serves, and the First Amendment.”