Joaquin Castro (Texas Democratic Congressman) sharply criticized Warner Bros. leadership following more drastic layoffs. Discovery, which he called “outright hostile”New talent is especially important “creators of color.”
Warner Bros. has been formed since the merging of two companies. Castro stated that the company was founded in order to create Warner Bros. “seems to go out of it’s way to make the company less inclusive,”And has “imposed a double standard within the company.”He suggested that recent decisions were driven by political rather than financial concerns, which is evidence that there is “a double standard within the company.”
“So far the new @wbd has been outright hostile to content creators, creators of color, new voices trying to break into the industry, etc. The new WBD seems to go out of it’s way to make the company less inclusive while getting rich off the communities they’re sidelining,” Castro said In a thread on TwitterTuesday
“And for what? The business model isn’t working. @WBD stock has lost more than 50% post-merger. So stockholders suffer too. After the Batgirl fiasco (completed project dumped for $90M tax break) content creators discussed making WBD their “last look” when pitching studios,” he continued.
“They have also failed so far to deliver on promises they (leadership) made to civil rights organizations prior to the merger about commitments to inclusion. They have also imposed a double standard within the company,” Castro said.
“Let’s take Warner Bros. and CNN together as an example,” Castro added. “WB cut projects and pre-merger employees over “quality” (profitability) concerns. Yet for CNN David Zaslav indicated that he’s not worried about ratings for now (ratings = profit). Apparently not, a top business side executive hired to run CNN had zero experience in the business.”
Castro’s comments comes hours after Warner Bros. Television laid off 26% of the division’s employees — 125 jobs — shut down its digital shortform content team, and killed its 40-year-old Television Writers Workshop. The workshop has long been a way for people without family or financial access to break into Hollywood and has particularly benefitted women and creators of color; notable alumni includes Regina King and Sonya Winton-Odamtten & Jonathan I. Kidd (“Lovecraft Country”).
Warner Bros. Representatives. Discovery didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from .