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“The News Is Broken”: Ex-CNN Host Warns Of Potential Pro-Trump State Media With Paramount-WBD Merger; Noah Wyle, IATSE Chief & Others Push For Federal Film-TV Tax Credit
Dominic Patten
Fri, March 20, 2026
“The news is broken, we may not be able to put the pieces back together,” former CNN White House Correspondent Jim Acosta told a packed Burbank City Hall on Friday, warning of the rise of entertainment industry oligarchs and “media domination.”
“We need to talk about busting up big media,” Acosta insisted. “This is not America what we’re seeing now.”
Citing a “danger to our democracy,” Acosta called Donald Trump’s attacks on the media “an assault on our freedom of speech … taking us down the road of Putin and China to state-controlled media.” An old and constant thorn in Trump’s paw, Acosta certainly had something to say about David Ellison’s pending $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros Discovery – the owners of CNN.
Taking a swing at “partisan hacks” running CBS News and the probability of more job losses like we saw today, and “self-censoring,” the journalist was speaking Friday at Sen. Adam Schiff’s “Lights, Camera, Competition”: Promoting American Film Production event in the former home of the Tonight Show. With an event lineup that included The Pitt’s Noah Wyle, IATSE president Matthew Loeb, Jax Deluca, Executive Director of Future Film Coalition, longtime production incentive proponent Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) and HBO alum Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) in attendance, the gathering toggled its split focus. California Attorney General Rob Bonta (who is investigating the Paramount-WBD deal & leading the multi-state suit against the Nexstar-Tegna merger) didn’t speak during the session, but was sitting in the front room with a smile on his face. At one point, as the benefits of a federal tax incentive were debated, Acosta threw in the idea of a tax credit for “independent journalism” to turn the consolidation and ideological tide.
With that, while there are few things on which Trump and Schiff agree, both are on the same page when it comes to keeping Hollywood production in the U.S. However, at the same time, the MAGA kingpin and the Democrat who reps Hollywood are in different places it seems when it comes to Paramount merging with Warner Bros Discovery.
Ellison has promised editorial independence for CNN, but with the direction CBS has gone under its news editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, those pledges strike many as the Paramount CEO saying what he needs to say to get his deal approved. Warning about the potential consequences of Skydance founder Ellison and his father, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, owning both CBS and CNN, Acosta’s remarks picked up on a placard quoting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week criticizing the media over its Iran war coverage.
“The public can sniff out what’s going on here,” Acosta proclaimed, pointing to a recent media hit list from Trump last week and payouts and other moves seemingly undertaken to placate the White House. They are “a shakedown to a wannabe dictator,” Acosta added, gathering a round of applause in the room.
Turning to the desire for a federal program though never letting the merger out of his sight, Schiff declared that the harsh decline in U.S. production “is not a Hollywood backlot story, it’s a Main Street story.”
Pushing for Congress to act on a federal program, Schiff wasn’t alone in pushing for greater initiative from DC to complement tax credit programs that exist in states like California, New York and Georgia. “Without a comprehensive federal policy response, the U.S. risks turning its back on a signature American industry,” IATSE chief Loeb said, with The Pitt’s Wyle by his side.
“Federal policymakers must act to level the playing field and make the U.S. film and television industry more competitive on the global stage,” Loeb added (read L his full remarks below). “A globally competitive, labor-based incentive for U.S. production that supplements state incentives is essential to return and maintain film and television jobs in America.
“We must ensure that the American film industry is not sacrificed for corporate scale and control,” the Future Film Coalition’s Deluca said to the assembled politicians and onlookers. “A stronger Hollywood is built not through consolidation, but through competition, fair markets, and policies that sustain independent storytelling.”
As various speakers differed over whether it was too late to turn things around, as well as the prospects of AI, Schiff noted the recent loss of more than 41,000 industry jobs in L.A. County and how 45% of American TV and film production was shot outside the country in 2025.
Looking at the importance of state programs and a proposed 15%-19% federal program, Emmy winner Wyle added: “It is vital to the strength of our industry and our city to support these incentives. It’s an investment on our city’s most precious commodity and biggest asset. It’s an investment in our people.” (Read his full remarks below.)
“It’s going to be all about the dollars,” Loeb said, cutting to the chase of a federal film/TV incentive program. “It’s all about money at the end of the day.”
Here are Wyle’s full remarks:
I’m grateful to Senator Schiff for extending the invitation to speak with you today and support him in his effort to enact a Federal tax incentive for U.S based film and television production.
As an Angelino with generational roots to this city and a “seasoned” member of its creative community – advocacy for Los Angeles based production is something close to my heart. Over the last 6 years the aggregate effect of projects leaving the state in search of tax credits, the pandemic, and last year’s fires- has been a near cratering of our once thriving industry. We lost 42,000 film and tv jobs in LA county between 2022 and 2024. And As of last year high-budget productions are down 43% .
Admittedly, It’s really hard to shoot a tv show in LA. And it’s really expensive. Prohibitively so.
Unless… you adopt an economic model – which takes full advantage of the CA tax incentive – and in our case asks personnel to accept reductions in rates in the hopes that the speculation will pay off.
I was asked to participate in today’s hearing – to tell a success story. The Pitt has blessedly become proof of that speculative concept and I’m happy to report- will commence shooting season 3 this summer – A rising tide has lifted all boats.
In season 1, under the 3.0 tax program, our show received a 20% tax rebate on many non-Above-the-line costs. Our pattern budget per episode was approximately $6,659,221. Based on that gross number we got a rebate of $767, 751 per episode.
Our total season 1 spend was approximately $99, 888, 000. After the rebate our adjusted spend was $88, 372, 050. We were able to save over 11 million dollars, roughly the cost of two full episodes.
How did we spend the money?
72% went to labor. Local cast and crew compensation. That’s roughly $62, 000,000. We had 590 full time and part time crew jobs.
The remaining 28% was spent with local vendors on goods and services. That’s about $24,000,000 spent on local businesses. $4.6 million went to background performers. Another million and a half on food services. That’s direct impact.
Then there’s the indirect impact- the ripple effect of that money- which in turn stimulates additional economic activity. It’s estimated that the procurement associated with The Pitt season one stimulated a $22.6 million contribution to the State’s GDP along the domestic supply chain. The show’s expenditure on inputs of goods and services from locally based suppliers also stimulated 150 full time jobs across California.
The induced impact of our cast and crew spending along with the workers along the supply chain in turn stimulated even more economic growth. It’s estimated that the wage-financed spending of local production crews and workers at locally based suppliers stimulated $40.3 million toward California’s GDP during the period of production.
The bottom line is that the estimated total impact of the first season of The Pitt contributed around $125 million towards the State’s GDP during our production period.
That’s proof of concept. It is vital to the strength of our industry and our city to support these incentives. It’s an investment on our city’s most precious commodity and biggest asset. It’s an investment in our people.
Here are Loeb’s remarks:
Good morning Senator Schiff & Representatives. I want to thank you for the invitation to participate in this important hearing on behalf of the over 170,000 behind-the-scenes entertainment workers of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).
Film and television production creates good-paying, family-sustaining union jobs, and it’s critical that Paramount Skydance’s proposed purchase of Warner Brothers Discovery be evaluated from the perspective of American workers.
The loss of any independently operating producer and distributor of film and television content could have profound impacts for entertainment workers. Over the last decade, we have seen American studios offshoring production at alarming rates. As regulators and elected officials consider the Paramount-Warner combination, we are asking that particular attention be paid to ensuring that domestic production does not suffer further.
When major companies merge, workers often pay the price first. IATSE’s position is that regulators should consider the effect of consolidation on labor markets, not only on consumer prices. In 2023, IATSE and the Directors Guild of America (DGA) issued joint comments in support of revised FTC-DOJ Merger Guidelines – an important course correction that restored the federal government’s ability to review the impact of consolidation and vertical integration in the entertainment industry on our members and other workers in the film and television industry.
Past studio mergers have meant fewer jobs and disruptions to production. Redundancies following the Warner Bros.-Discovery and Disney-Fox mergers led to reductions in workforce that have the potential to occur downstream from a Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
If Paramount Skydance is successful in their proposed acquisition of Warner Brothers Discovery, our primary interest is holding them accountable to the commitments they have made to Californian and American workers. CEO David Ellison has made a public commitment that Paramount Studios and Warner Bros. Studios will each produce a minimum of 15 high-quality feature films per year, for a total of at least 30 feature films annually. That level of production is needed in the United States if IATSE members are to continue to be able to make a living in the industry.
Work in the entertainment industry is precarious. It is primarily project, or “gig” based, meaning most IATSE workers perform freelance work outside of what is considered “regular employment.” We’ve been in the “gig” economy since 1893. Project-based work in film and television production can be as short as a day for a commercial shoot, multiple months for a film production, or a couple years for a recurring television series. Entertainment workers can have multiple, if not dozens, of employers each year and those workers rely on project-based job opportunities to support themselves and their families.
Employment for below-the-line workers in Hollywood is down some 45 million hours per year since 2022. According to the January 2026 ProdPro report, the U.S. share of global production has dropped from 52% to 38% during the same period.
The American film and television industry faces an urgent threat from international competition. Foreign governments have successfully lured film and television productions, and the multitude of jobs they create, away from the United States with aggressive tax incentives and subsidies. Films intended for initial release in the U.S. are increasingly being shot overseas — and American workers are paying the price.
In just a few years, IATSE members have lost tens of thousands of jobs across the United States. That’s thousands of families, small businesses, and communities across the country feeling the economic hardship of a shrinking industry.
Movies and television shows created primarily for U.S. audiences are being produced abroad — not because of better talent or technology, but because other countries recognize the value of these productions and are offering robust financial incentives that the U.S. simply doesn’t match. While U.S. states have offered tax credits for production, in recent years state incentives have not been enough to prevent productions from moving overseas.
Without a comprehensive federal policy response, the U.S. risks turning its back on a signature American industry. Federal policymakers must act to level the playing field and make the U.S. film and television industry more competitive on the global stage. A globally competitive, labor-based incentive for U.S. production that supplements state incentives is essential to return and maintain film and television jobs in America.
IATSE is incredibly grateful to have champions like Senator Schiff and Representative Friedman working to solve this issue. Their strategic efforts have built momentum towards the introduction of a federal film and television production tax incentive and IATSE will continue its tireless advocacy with Congress and the White House to achieve that goal.
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