The bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery may hinge on a lawyer with an unusual depth of experience in media and tech: Justice Department antitrust chief Gail Slater. Members of both parties are urging close scrutiny of Netflix’s deal and a competing hostile bid from Paramount, and Hollywood stars and unions worry a merger will mean less competition. President Donald Trump’s intense interest in the fate of CNN threatens to undercut Slater’s review before it officially started.
Slater has been in the hot seat before in Trump’s politicized Washington; two of her deputies quit earlier this year after what they said was undue influence by MAGA figures meddling in a Big Tech takeover. And she has other high-stakes decisions to make, notably whether to appeal a ruling in the case against Google as the administration tilts toward Big Tech. She is, an ally says, an “idealist” and possibly “not corrupt enough for this world.”
Fast-changing industries like tech and media are a particularly soft spot for antitrust regulators, whose reviews — snapshot at best and backward-looking at worst — can miss coming shifts. (Case in point: the bankruptcy filing this week of the maker Roomba vacuums, whose acquisition by Amazon was blocked by Biden’s antitrust watchdogs and sold instead to a Chinese supplier.)
But it’s worth noting that while Slater is best known as then-Sen. JD Vance’s top economic policy adviser, she’s also a former executive at Fox, Roku, and until 2018, as a top executive at lobby group Internet Association.