Proving that Hollywood really is in the business of happy endings—provided you’re loose enough with your definitions of “happiness,” and apply them pretty much exclusively to corporate entities willing to perform moral gymnastics that would put your average Olympian to shame—Paramount has successfully received FCC approval for its plans to sell itself to media company Skydance Media. And all it cost it was $16 million, the respect of many of its most credible employees, and the public spectacle of having to eat a big, heaping spoonful of shit from FCC chair Brendan Carr, whose memo announcing the approval was careful to take plenty of time to rub the company’s nose in how far it had to bow to Donald Trump and his cronies to get the merger through.
Among other things, Carr’s memo went out of its way to continue the current administration’s basic attacks on the mainstream media, stating that “Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media,” and reiterating that “New Paramount”—which will be run by Skydance’s David Ellison, son of noted Trump supporter Larry Ellison—”has made written commitments to ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum.” (Also, they’re installing a political commissar ombudsman whose job it’ll be to report instances of “bias” to Ellison.) The attacks on the basic concepts of diversity and representation are, presumably, understood at this point. (They don’t have to be—Carr gives them a whole paragraph in his statement—but they presumably also are.)
But while Carr was crowing, the FCC was also forced to issue a statement from one of his fellow commissioners, Biden appointee Anna M. Gomez, who was a tad less effusive about the merger. “After months of cowardly capitulation to this Administration,” Gomez wrote in her dissent, “Paramount finally got what it wanted. Unfortunately, it is the American public who will ultimately pay the price for its actions.” Calling the lead-up to the merger—which saw Trump threaten Paramount with a $20 billion lawsuit over claims that he was somehow harmed by edits made to a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris—”an assault on the First Amendment,” Gomez wrote,
In 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. Once again, the agency is undermining legitimate efforts to combat discrimination and expand opportunity by overstepping its authority and intervening in employment matters reserved for other government entities with proper jurisdiction on these issues. 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.
Paramount’s leadership reportedly got $8 billion for the sale.
