Will Trump’s DOJ antitrust pick shake up Hollywood?

Donald Trump has appointed Gail Slater as the head of the Justice Department's antitrust division. Slater, a veteran antitrust lawyer, is expected to oversee significant cases against big tech companies like Google and Apple, but how will she approach mergers in the entertainment industry? Kim Masters and Matt Belloni investigate.

Point… Trump? In his proposed effort to crack down on big tech monopolies, Donald Trump made a statement that (surprisingly) may have some serious mass-appeal. “It’s one of the few times he said something that just generally people might agree with,” Masters says. “He said: ‘Big tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector, and as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of little tech.’ I don't know who wrote that, but that was what Trump had to say.”

Antitrust activation? As Gail Slater prepares to take on massive tech companies like Google and Apple, other industries worry that the scrutiny faced by the tech industry may leave them next in line. “The question for Hollywood people and Hollywood CEOs in particular is, ‘is this skepticism towards big tech going to spill into other industries?’” Belloni ponders.

Give him enough rope? While Trump’s words on big tech may point in a positive direction, his actions still have quite a bit to prove. “Let's just remember one thing,” Masters clarifies, “with Trump, it’s politics. And billionaires are often his friends, so we'll see how that plays out. But we saw in the last administration, his administration hassled AT&T when it was still Time Warner [but] didn't hassle Disney buying Fox… Rupert [Murdoch], I think obviously, is a friend of Trump. The irony was, of course, that the Disney acquisition of Fox should have been more concerning; one big entertainment company taking over a big entertainment studio.”