“Mission: Impossible” has become one of Paramount’s longest and most durable franchises, yielding eight movies over 29 years — including this month’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” — after starting as a TV series three decades before that. It’s also the perfect title for the seemingly impossible mission its corporate parent and chairman Shari Redstone faces: Trying to save the Skydance Media merger without sacrificing the integrity of CBS News and “60 Minutes.”
Redstone can easily be painted as the villain in this scenario, particularly if the company waves the white flag of surrender to President Donald Trump and opts not to stand behind its news division.