{"id":784,"date":"2025-07-25T03:57:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T23:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/paramount-skydance-merger-approved-after-companies-agree-to-government-speech-demands\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T03:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T23:57:14","slug":"paramount-skydance-merger-approved-after-companies-agree-to-government-speech-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/paramount-skydance-merger-approved-after-companies-agree-to-government-speech-demands\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount-Skydance merger approved after companies agree to government speech demands"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved Skydance\u2019s $8 billion purchase of CBS-owner Paramount after the companies agreed to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs but feature a \u201cdiversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum.\u201d<\/p>\n

In light of the Trump administration\u2019s critiques of CBS\u2019s alleged anti-conservative bias \u2014 including collecting a $16 million settlement over the president\u2019s lawsuit<\/a> over an allegedly deceptively edited video of then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes<\/em> \u2014 the companies\u2019 commitment to address bias in the lawsuit likely means featuring more conservative programming. Skydance agreed to employ an ombudsman for at least two years, \u201cwho will receive and evaluate any complaints of bias or other concerns involving CBS.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change,\u201d Republican FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement announcing the agency\u2019s approval. \u201cThat is why I welcome Skydance\u2019s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.\u201d He said the commitments \u201cwould enable CBS to operate in the public interest and focus on fair, unbiased, and fact-based coverage,\u201d and mark \u201canother step forward in the FCC\u2019s efforts to eliminate invidious forms of DEI discrimination.\u201d Carr also boasts that Skydance \u201creaffirms its commitment to localism as a core component of the public interest standard,\u201d and that the approval will \u201cunleash the investment of $1.5 billion into Paramount.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carr has made no secret<\/a> of his distaste for news coverage he sees as disproportionately unfavorable to the right and DEI policies he believes contribute to unfair treatment. He\u2019s opened investigations into all three major networks<\/a> as well as NPR and PBS (NBCUniversal and its owner Comcast are investors in The Verge<\/em> parent company Vox Media). A week ago, CBS announced it was retiring The Late Show<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>hosted by Trump critic and comedian Stephen Colbert. The network said it was \u201cpurely a financial decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FCC\u2019s only remaining Democratic commissioner, Anna Gomez<\/a>, dissented, writing that, \u201cIn an unprecedented move, this once-independent FCC used its vast power to pressure Paramount to broker a private legal settlement and further erode press freedom \u2026 Even more alarming, it is now imposing never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment, in direct violation of the First Amendment and the law.\u201d Still, she gave Carr credit for calling a vote on the matter, rather than rubber-stamping the merger through one of the agency\u2019s bureaus, like it did for the Verizon-Frontier merger<\/a>, which similarly required an end to DEI programs.<\/p>\n

Gomez warns that this agreement is just the canary in the coal mine. \u201cThe Paramount payout and this reckless approval have emboldened those who believe the government can\u2014and should\u2014abuse its power to extract financial and ideological concessions, demand favored treatment, and secure positive media coverage,\u201d she writes. \u201cIt is a dark chapter in a long and growing record of abuse that threatens press freedom in this country. But such violations endure only when institutions choose capitulation over courage. It is time for companies, journalists, and citizens alike to stand up and speak out, because unchecked and unquestioned power has no rightful place in America.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved Skydance\u2019s $8 billion purchase of CBS-owner Paramount after the companies agreed to end […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}