Politics

Blue State AG Gets A Warning As He Weighs Major Hollywood Move

Northwest view of the top of the California State Capitol in Sacramento. (Wikimedia Commons)

Republican California Rep. Darrell Issa sent a letter to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta on Friday expressing “concern” over Bonta’s office reportedly preparing to sue to block the Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery merger.

In a copy of the letter posted Saturday to X, Issa claimed that “for at least a decade, film and television production has fled the state once synonymous with the motion picture, television, and digital industries – repeatedly citing California’s anticompetitive business environment, burdensome regulatory rules, and excessive taxes, fees and costs.”

“The result has been the loss of tens of thousands of California jobs and the wholesale relocation of studios, facilities, and related businesses that built our entertainment economy,” he continues. “Nothing in your reported opposition to date seems to address this crisis head-on or offer a real solution.”

Neither Newsom’s office, Bonta’s office, nor Issa’s office responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

“The public record is that the [regulatory] authorities of more than two dozen nations around the world – including Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa – have formed a global consensus that this merger is pro-competition,” Issa adds. “In addition to gaining the regulatory approval of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the backers of the merger have publicly pledged significant new investment in production, including a commitment to annually release 30 or more films per year and prioritize domestic production for both film and television.”

Issa also wrote in the letter that he is urging Bonta and Newsom “to reconsider and decline to take an action that I believe would validate the spreading concern among successful California-based companies that the State government has become so hostile to businesses, innovators, and entrepreneurs that they should relocate out of state entirely.”

Here’s a message to Gavin Newsom and Rob Bonta: The stakes are too high to weaponize antitrust law and continue to drive away the jobs and economy of California’s entertainment industry. pic.twitter.com/iLBMDdlzlb

— Rep. Darrell Issa (@repdarrellissa) July 11, 2026

“Here’s a message to Gavin Newsom and Rob Bonta: The stakes are too high to weaponize antitrust law and continue to drive away the jobs and economy of California’s entertainment industry,” Issa states.

The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division in June greenlit Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Opponents of the deal have argued it could potentially result in mass layoffs, Politico reported June 12.

Attorneys for multiple U.S. states are finalizing an antitrust lawsuit against Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN reported Wednesday, citing several anonymous sources involved in the legal process.

Bonta notably claimed in a Feb. 20 statement responding to proposed Warner Bros. mergers that “consolidation of markets has led to increased unaffordability, a loss of good-paying job opportunities, and fewer choices for consumers.”