Apart from the anti-trust angles as to why such a merger is bad, I am also concerned about the increasing political biases among employees in the publishing wor

Apart from the anti-trust angles as to why such a merger is bad, I am also concerned about the increasing political biases among employees in the publishing world. For example, employees at Penguin Random House protested the publishing of Jordan Peterson’s new book (https://reason.com/2020/11/25/jordan-peterson-12-rules-for-life-sequel-penguin-random-house/ https://reason.com/2020/11/25/jordan-peterson-12-rules-for-l...). Simon and Schuster employees protested the publishing of Mike Pence’s memoir (https://thehill.com/homenews/media/549311-simon-schuster-rejects-employees-call-to-drop-pence-book-deal https://thehill.com/homenews/media/549311-simon-schuster-rej...). There are numerous other examples that can be found via search, and the spike in political protests at publishers coincides with the rise of protests and calls for deplatforming elsewhere. Something similar has been happening with booksellers as well. Industry groups like the American Booksellers Association have been bowing down to progressive activists’ pressure (https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-entertainment-business-arts-and-entertainment-amazoncom-inc-26035c9ee8c2720d1bd2dc7983b035f3 https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-entertainment-business-...). Leftist activists have pressured physical bookstores to remove books from their shelves (https://reason.com/2021/01/11/powells-books-antifa-andy-ngo-store-censorship/ https://reason.com/2021/01/11/powells-books-antifa-andy-ngo-...). Even new online independent bookstore Bookshop.org has joined the culture wars, asking customers to donate to send copies of “The 1619 Project” to schools (https://bookshop.org/1619 https://bookshop.org/1619). Books are a really fundamental tool in our society for the exchange of information and ideas. The introduction of political and ideological wars into the world of book publishing and sales is scary, and out of touch with classically liberal enlightenment values. However, seeing as how many institutions have been taken over or caved to such pressures, I feel like choice and competition are the one thing protecting free expression on this medium. As such, I would not like to see the type of consolidation these publishers are pushing for.