‘Block the Merger’ Event Draws Leaders From FCC, FTC and WGA to Oppose Paramount Deal With Warner Bros.

A “Main Street vs. the Merger” event held in Los Angeles on Saturday featured several speakers against the proposed Paramount Skydance takeover of Warner Bros., including leaders from the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Writers Guild of America West.

Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat serving as an FCC commissioner, former FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya and WGA West President Michelle Mulroney each took the stage at the Beverly Hills’ Lumiere Cinema.

“I know it’s exhausting, I’m exhausted,” Gomez said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “Every day I’m speaking out about some new horror that this administration is doing, particularly on the First Amendment. I’m exhausted. But it’s not time to be tired. It’s time to get inspired because your voices really do matter.”

The event was co-hosted and co-produced by the American Economic Liberties Project, the Film Coalition, The Worker Agency, Free Press, the Writers Guild of America West, the 1A Committee, DD Action and More Perfect Union. AELP, which was live-tweeting the event, said a broad range of workers was represented, including actors, proucers, writers, agents, stagehands, editors, and more.

“As a below-the-line worker, the massive decrease in production over the last years has turned my life upside down, between the mergers, the restructuring, the contraction and consolidation that’s been mentioned,” one IATSE member said. “There are fewer films and TV shows being made, so there’s literally just fewer jobs. This has devastated the 10s of 1000s of us that are working in production labor, or that were working in production labor.”

“A decade ago, the casual conversation between peers would be, ‘What are you working on?’” one commenter said. “Now it’s, ‘Are you working?’ If Paramount merges with Warner Brothers, it may be the final domino that knocks everything down.”

Similar events were scheduled for New York and Atlanta.

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