As the annual Sun Valley conference — the exclusive, off-the-record gathering of media and technology moguls hosted by investment bank Allen & Co. in Idaho — opens this week, Variety executive editor Brent Lang argues that the event has been a driving force behind the decline of the media business. The gathering has spawned some of the biggest mergers of the past four decades, yet many of these deals proved disastrous, leaving the industry burdened with debt and poorly placed to cope with changes in how audiences consume and pay for entertainment. This year's expected attendees include Mark Zuckerberg, Disney's Josh D'Amaro, Paramount's David Ellison, Comcast's Brian Roberts, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Apple's John Ternus.

Lang points to deals born at Sun Valley that later unravelled, including Time Warner's merger with AOL, Yahoo's sale to Verizon, Jeff Bezos's acquisition of the Washington Post and Comcast's purchase of NBCUniversal, which is now being undone. He notes that Allen & Co. profits from advising on such mergers regardless of the outcome, and that lawyers and banks are the consistent winners. The piece also criticises the conference's treatment of most journalists, who are kept away from executives, while a select few are admitted on condition they do not report on proceedings. Ultimately, Lang contends, the event reinforces a belief among the billionaire class that they know best about everything, from business to public services.