The Real Threat to Hollywood: Ownership, Not Automation
Montage: Curt Doty
When people talk about threats to Hollywood - loss of jobs to AI, deepfakes, streaming wars - they’re mostly pointing at symptoms. But the disease is deeper: concentrated corporate/conservative ownership and the growing overlap between media, politics, and ideology.
AI is a wildcard - but consolidating control of who tells the story, what stories get told, and what versions of history are permitted—that’s the imminent danger. And make no mistake: it’s happening now.
The question is Who’s Gaining Control? Consider these recent events:
Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension by ABC/Disney: After a critical monologue about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the FCC chair—appointed under Trump—quelled ABC with threats. The result: “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was pulled from air. (The Guardian)
Nexstar, Sinclair & conservative media’s reach: Companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group own hundreds of local stations across the U.S., in many cases pushing conservative editorial lines via must-run segments and centrally produced content. (The Guardian)
Media tilt and narrative shaping: Studies show that when local news outlets are bought by conservative companies, national (rather than local) political stories dominate—and the ideological slant shifts. (The New Yorker) These aren’t isolated. They are signals that the infrastructure of storytelling—from entertainment to news—is under pressure from conservative and political forces with skin in the game.
Why does this matter? Stories Are History and History Is Power. Hollywood has long served as a mirror, sometimes a hammer, shaping public understanding of who we are, where we come from, what’s right and wrong. If the voices that control that mirror decide to whiten the picture or erase uncomfortable truths, what remains is propaganda—state media by other means.
White‑washed history: If narratives are sanitized to avoid conflict with powerful conservative ideologies—e.g. glossing over systemic racism, colonialism, or dissent—we risk a bland, misleading national mythology.
Censorship by ownership + regulation: When corporate owners are conservative (or beholden to conservative regulators), and when political power can threaten licenses or impose penalties, self‑censorship becomes real. What’s controversial is increasingly risky.
Erosion of dissent & diversity: The stories that go untold are as important as the ones told. Marginalized perspectives may be squeezed out—not by public contest, but by structural forces.
Are We Already Headed There? Yes, there are red flags:
The Kimmel incident suggests regulatory overreach combined with corporate caving, rather than corporate boldness. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Media conglomerates under conservative ownership have shown patterns of shaping content in predictable ideological ways. Sinclair is the oft‑cited example: must‑run segments, editorial mandates, and conservative framing. (The Guardian)
Boycott calls (e.g. #BoycottDisney) signal public concern—but the structural forces (ownership, regulatory threat, capital interests) are harder to shift. (The Guardian)
But What About AI? It’s Not the Villain—Yet. AI is often blamed for job losses, loss of originality, or risk of misinformation. But AI is a tool. It amplifies what owners decide to produce. If the gatekeepers want homogeneity, AI helps them multiply it faster. If the gatekeepers want truth, AI can help there too—but that’s not where the incentive lies in a consolidated conservative‑owned media landscape.
So, How does Creativity Survive? What are the levers we still have to resist this drift?
Decentralized funding & independent platforms Support smaller production houses, indie filmmakers, artists who refuse to rely on legacy media networks. Crowdfunded, community‑anchored storytelling can maintain plurality.
Stronger protections for free speech & media independence Regulatory frameworks that prevent licensing or regulatory agencies from being weaponized, protections for critics and dissenting voices in entertainment.
Public awareness & audience demand When audiences care about authenticity, historical nuance, diverse voices, those markets exist. Boycotts or push‑back help, but sustained demand for stories that challenge dominant narratives is essential.
Policy & antitrust pressure Breaking up media monopolies, enforcing anti‑consolidation rules, transparency around who owns what. Ownership matters. We need to insist that the media landscape is not just entertainment but democratic infrastructure.
Creative subversion Use allegory, myth, speculative fiction, non‑linear storytelling. When direct history is dangerous, creative forms can encode truth in metaphor.
I know the Russian film industry is not the model anyone wants. Do you remember their latest blockbuster? State control there is overt. What we face here is subtler, but no less dangerous: the creeping normalization of ideology via private ownership with political motivations. The difference is one of degree, not kind.
Who Gets To Be the Author? Hollywood has always been a contest: who tells the story, who gets forgotten, which truths are celebrated. If we let ownership and political power define that, we lose the freedom to choose what history remembers. AI might complicate the battleground. But choke off the voices first, and AI becomes the echo chamber.
So no - our threat isn’t robots writing scripts. It’s the ever‐smaller group of people deciding which stories we even hear. The consolidation of media is not a branding exercise, it is a Wake up call to demand more, and create outside the gate. Because once “State Media” whitewashes history, once censorship is normalized, art loses its light.
Sources:
https://www.ft.com/content/41cc3182-9117-4ca1-b5af-0dd24ccd2fe5?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://www.axios.com/2025/09/18/trump-maga-media-cnn-cbs-ellison-tiktok?utm_source=chatgpt.com
About the Author
Curt Doty, founder of CurtDoty.co, is an award winning creative director whose legacy lies in branding, product development, social strategy, integrated marketing, and User Experience Design. His work of entertainment branding includes Electronic Arts, EA Sports, ProSieben, SAT.1, WBTV Latin America, Discovery Health, ABC, CBS, A&E, StarTV, Fox, Kabel 1, and TV Guide Channel. His work in movie marketing spans the major studios: Universal Pictures, Fox Searchlight, 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, Miramax and Disney. He is now helping independent filmmakers market their movies for festivals and distribution.
He currently serves on the board of the Godfrey Reggio Foundation and is the AI Writer for Parlay Me.
To learn more about Curt’s pedigree of innovation, check this out.
