WGA Slams Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Over Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery Merger Support
The Writers Guild of America has publicly rebuked Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass after she threw her weight behind a settlement in the antitrust lawsuit blocking the proposed $110 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Bass made her comments at a news conference on Thursday, joining California Governor Gavin Newsom and other state and local Democratic officials in calling for a negotiated settlement rather than a courtroom fight (Deadline). She insisted she was "not about taking sides," framing her position as a fight to keep Paramount in Los Angeles and protect local jobs.
The WGA saw it differently. "We are disappointed that Mayor Bass has chosen to join Paramount's pressure campaign on public enforcers, to push through a merger that is being rightfully challenged as illegal and will lead to job losses in the entertainment industry," the guild said in a statement (Deadline). The guild's lawsuit, filed alongside the antitrust action, claims the deal violates federal competition law because fewer studios means less leverage for writers (The Center Square).
The stakes for Los Angeles are concrete. A report submitted to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors projected the merger would cost thousands of jobs. A separate estimate put the number at roughly 4,500 film and television jobs at risk across L.A. County (NBC Los Angeles). Paramount has promised investors $6 billion in cost savings from the deal, while insisting layoffs will not be the primary way to get there (Deadline).
Bass said any settlement must include "meaningful and enforceable commitments" to keep both Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery in Los Angeles and to maintain jobs, productions, and investment in the city and state. Her concern is not abstract: Paramount CEO David Ellison and his management team have been actively exploring options to move the company out of Los Angeles (Deadline).
The legal landscape is fractured. The U.S. Justice Department's Antitrust Division has publicly concluded the merger is "unlikely to harm competition or consumers" (Los Angeles Times). But California Attorney General Rob Bonta, leading a coalition of 12 states plus the WGA, has shown no interest in settling. Bonta recently described Ellison as "desperate" in his push to clear the merger (The Hollywood Reporter). A trial date has been set for March 2027.
The WGA's statement sharpened the contrast. "Industry workers deserve a mayor who believes in upholding the law and protecting the working people of Los Angeles, not serving the interests of powerful corporations," the guild said (Deadline).
What makes the clash unusual is that both sides say they are fighting for the same people. Bass wants to keep productions and jobs in Los Angeles. The WGA wants to stop a merger it believes will eliminate them. The disagreement is not over whether jobs matter, but over whether a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery would create them or destroy them.
