The Freedom of the Press Foundation expressed discontent following the approval of the Paramount-Skydance merger, calling out Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr for “meddling in broadcasters’ content.”
The FPF has been vocal about the risk that Paramount’s $16 million settlement over the “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris poses to press freedom, criticizing the media titan for cowering to President Donald Trump. In a statement to TheWrap Friday, a spokesperson for the foundation stated that they could hardly fathom that anyone could believe Paramount’s seemingly selfless claims over its reasons for the settlement.
“I’m not aware of a single person who believed Paramount’s claim that this settlement was about lawyer fees and liability risk,” Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement. “And if such people exist, Donald Trump has a real estate degree to sell them.”
The foundation previously called Paramount’s settlement a “spineless decision.” After 251 days, the FCC approved Paramount and Skydance Media’s $8 billion merger by a vote of 2-1 along party lines Thursday. The approval came after Skydance agreed to bring on an ombudsman at CBS to review complaints of bias and to eliminate all DEI initiatives for Paramount at large.
“If there was ever any doubt, Brendan Carr just extinguished it by approving the merger just days after Trump announce he’d received Paramount’s shakedown money,” the statement continued. “What’s worse, Carr can’t justify his actions by pointing to Skydance’s promise to appoint a bias ombudsman, because the FCC meddling in broadcasters’ content is illegal too.”
The FCC does not have permission to censor or bar broadcasters from platforming content from any point of view. Engaging in censorship would infringe the media’ First Amendment right to freedom of the press.
FCC Clears Paramount-Skydance Merger
The press freedom advocacy group filed a shareholder information demand back in May and said in early July that it intended to explore further legal action to hold Paramount’s board accountable for what it sees as a “capitulation” to Trump that violates shareholders’ interests and the First Amendment.
“Each time a company cowers and surrenders to Trump’s demands it only emboldens him to do it again. It will be remembered as one of the most shameful capitulations by the press to a president in history,” Stern said in a statement to TheWrap July 2.
The Paramount-Skydance merger approval comes just one week after CBS canceled “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” after he called his network’s $16 million settlement a “big fat bribe.”
Under the new merger, Skydance is set to acquire controlling shareholder Shari Redstone’s holding company National Amusements, which controls 77.4% of the Paramount Class A common stock outstanding and approximately 9.5% of the overall equity of the company, before merging with the Hollywood studio. The Redstone family will finally relinquish control of the media giant that they have owned since 1994 to the Ellison family and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital Partners.
