Why FCC chair will continue to throttle Paramount-Skydance merger – despite Trump settlement

With the Trump-CBS lawsuit out of the way, the $8 billion merger between the network’s parent, Paramount, and independent studio Skydance Media would seem to be a fait accompli.

As if anything involving Donald Trump is that easy, On The Money has learned.

True, the lawsuit filed by then-president-elect in December alleging that CBS deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 Democratic opponent Kamala Harris was seen as an impediment to getting his regulators to approve the deal.

And true, now that the lawsuit has been settled to Trump’s liking ($16 million in cash and the expectation of tens of millions more in public service ads for MAGA causes), the deal should finally get the green light from the Federal Communications Commission so everyone, including Paramount’s cash-poor controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, can get paid.

But the FCC under Trump-nominated chairman Brendan Carr won’t make it easy on deal participants, namely Redstone, and Skydance chief David Ellison, people with knowledge of the matter tell On The Money.

Carr is a long-time telecom lawyer, regulator and a conservative activist who believes the mainstream broadcast media has regularly flouted FCC “public interest rules” that govern local TV broadcast licensing. Pre-Trump, the FCC didn’t give much thought to what constituted public interest, but Carr has, I am told.

In his world view, the First Amendment gives CBS or any local affiliate freedom to publish what it wants. What the First Amendment doesn’t confer is FCC approval for local broadcast licenses, and one interpretation of public interest is that news content must not contain political bias. 

Pundits can bounce around opinions all they want, but when news shows tilt the scales during debates when a national election is on the line, as alleged in the “60 Minutes” interview with a presidential candidate, the FCC can deny local broadcast licensing and upend mergers like Paramount’s sale to Skydance.

Conservatives have been harping for years about TV bias, the open flouting of the FCC rules, but Carr is the first to take it seriously. He intends to make CBS his test case as the Skydance-Paramount deal seeks his agency’s blessing.

In an interesting twist, Trump’s lawsuit against CBS for allegedly editing the Harris interview to make her sound smarter and more presidential, is nearly identical to a complaint filed by a conservative legal group, Center For American Rights with the FCC that sparked the FCC investigation of CBS and placed another roadblock to the deal.

Here’s what people close to the FCC tell me. Trump won some concessions out of CBS, the money, the PSAs and now going forward, CBS must release full transcripts of interviews so the public can see if it’s deceptively editing news interviews. 

Carr will demand a bit more, I am told. Maybe an ombudsman to monitor news content. The Center For American Rights has spoken with the FCC and given some remedies including moving some of CBS’s operations out from the progressive ecosystem of New York, DC and Los Angeles.

Carr also has said he wants to preserve local news, where affiliate stations have been complaining that they are getting squeezed by CBS with ever higher fees to run content. CBS might be forced to cut the affiliates a break. 

The decision on just what to agree to will largely be up to Ellison, the independent movie producer of such hits as “Top Gun: Maverick,” since he will be the new owner once the deal is approved. And make no mistake, this is getting approved one way or another. 

David is the son of mega billionaire Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, and a Trump MAGA supporter.

Trump, Carr’s boss, wants the deal to proceed, but he also wants to twist the knife into CBS just a bit more for years of alleged biased coverage of him and his agenda. So, expect the deal to get approved with a few conditions that Ellison is likely to agree with whether or not it angers the progressive purists that haven’t already left in the CBS news division.

The timing of all this is a little uncertain. The deal has a drop-dead date of October, and it has just been given a final 90-day extension to work out the details. The FCC will be discussing remedies this week on the center’s complaint, I am told.

Meanwhile, Ellison, from what I hear, misses the objective, hard-hitting news that was CBS’s legacy dating back to the great Edward R Murrow. Anything that de-politicizes the newsroom he can live with, sources tell On The Money.

A spokeswoman for Ellison declined comment on potential FCC remedies, as did a rep for the FCC.