Incoming CBS owner promises Trump's FCC it will review ‘complaints of bias' at news network and eliminate DEI policies
In a pair of letters to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr this week, Skydance's general counsel Kyoko McKinnon noted that while Skydance 'does not have DEI programs in place today,' the company confirmed that the New Paramount would not establish any similar practices in the future.
Following President Donald Trump's executive orders earlier this year calling for the eradication of diversity and equity policies, Carr launched investigations into media conglomerates Disney – which owns ABC News – and Comcast, the parent company of NBC News, over their DEI hiring and editorial initiatives.
Trump's hand-picked FCC chief, meanwhile, has also said that his agency would block any media mergers and acquisitions if the companies involved had diversity policies in place.
'Any businesses that are looking for FCC approval, I would encourage them to get busy ending any sort of their invidious forms of DEI discrimination,' he told Bloomberg in March. 'If there's businesses out there that are still promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination, I really don't see a path forward where the FCC could reach the conclusion that approving the transaction is going to be in the public interest.'
McKinnon additionally told Carr that Skydance would hire an ombudsman for at least two years, noting that the person would report directly to the president of the New Paramount and 'receive and evaluate any complaints of bias or other concerns involving CBS.' The letter added that the company's executive leadership would 'carefully consider any such complaints in overseeing CBS's news programming.'
This pledge comes weeks after Paramount settled a lawsuit brought by Trump alleging 'election interference' due to the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Even though the network denied the president's claims of 'deceptive' editing and called the lawsuit 'meritless,' Paramount paid Trump $16 million amid the pending merger, sparking accusations of bribery from Democratic lawmakers, free press organizations and CBS employees.
'New Paramount's new management will ensure that the company's array of news and entertainment programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum,' McKinnon also noted, echoing similar promises Skydance CEO David Ellison made to Carr in a meeting this month.
Ellison, the son of billionaire and Trump ally Larry Ellison, urged Carr to approve the merger and 'promptly grant' Paramount's request to transfer control of its broadcast licenses to Skydance. He further vowed that CBS would be 'unbiased' under the new corporate leadership.
'Relatedly, we discussed Skydance's commitment to unbiased journalism and its embrace of diverse viewpoints, principles that will ensure CBS's editorial decision-making reflects the varied ideological perspectives of American viewers,' Ellison's lawyer wrote in a regulatory filing.
The meeting between Ellison and Carr took place days before Paramount and CBS announced that they had canceled outspoken Trump critic Stephen Colbert's late-night show, leading to further speculation that the demise of The Late Show was not a 'purely financial decision' and may have been politically motivated.
Paramount has insisted that the cancellation was due solely to the dwindling ad revenues for late-night television and the high production costs of Colbert's show, though many CBS staffers feel it is actually 'part and parcel of the Trump shakedown settlement.'
Regardless of whether Colbert's cancellation was a move to appease Trump or not, both the president and Carr have gloated over the decision. 'I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,' Trump declared on Friday. 'His talent was even less than his ratings.'
Carr, meanwhile, tweeted on Tuesday that the 'partisan left's ritualist wailing and gnashing of teeth over Colbert is quite revealing,' adding that 'they're acting like they're losing a loyal DNC spokesperson.'
Later on in the day, the president repeated his claim that he had struck a secret side deal with Skydance to give him up to $20 million more in pro-Trump advertising and PSAs as part of the 60 Minutes settlement. A group of liberal senators is investigating whether Ellison made any such promises to Trump.
Paramount has denied knowledge of that backdoor arrangement, asserting that its payoff to Trump "does not include PSAs or anything related to PSAs.'
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