President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman, Brendan Carr, reacted on Friday to widespread criticism over the terms and conditions of the $8.4 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance that the FCC approved on Thursday.
“I think it’s time for a change,” he said when asked about the conditions and timing of the deal, which critics have described as an effort by the government to exert political influence over the press.
Why It Matters
Thursday’s decision from the FCC capped months of uncertainty about whether the massive merger would be approved.
The deal was approved after Skydance pledged that it would root out “bias” at Paramount’s CBS News division, not implement new diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and install an ombudsman to ensure ideological balance in CBS’s news coverage.
The FCC’s decision also came after Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit Trump filed alleging that CBS deceptively edited a 60 Minutes interview that then-Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris did during the 2024 election.
Critics have said the settlement amounted to a capitulation by the media to Trump’s personal agenda, and that the timeline between that and the FCC’s approval signals an unprecedented intervention by the government in the editorial operations of the independent press.
What To Know
Carr appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Friday morning and was asked about criticism of the merger and its timing, including comments made by his fellow FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who dissented to the deal’s approval in Thursday’s 2-1 vote.
Anchor David Faber quoted from Gomez’s dissent, saying: “You’re imposing never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment in direct violation of the First Amendment.”
Faber then asked Carr to respond to his colleague’s argument, to which Carr said: “I think it’s time for a change.”
He added: “And the procedures that we put in place in this deal have lots of precedent. For instance, there have been ombudsmen put in place by the FCC before. We’re putting a bias ombudsman in place here. We’re addressing DEI.”
Carr’s comments in defense of Trump were the latest example of his fealty to the president. The FCC chairman once wore a golden lapel pin of Trump’s head and has opened investigations into a number of media outlets the president has criticized since he became the head of the historically independent agency.
Carr continued defending the terms and conditions of the Paramount-Skydance merger during his Squawk Box interview Friday, saying the FCC is reversing the “pro-DEI commitments” that were made under the Biden administration.
“We’re unwinding that type of approach and we’re frankly taking a trust-but-verify perspective here,” he told Faber.
Carr went on to claim the media has “undermined itself” and took aim at CBS’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, which the network canceled last week while citing “purely financial” reasons.
Colbert’s cancellation came shortly after the longtime comedian described Paramount’s $16 million settlement as a “big, fat bribe” on the air, and days before the FCC greenlit the $8.4 billion Paramount-Skydance merger.
“When you look at the stuff that Colbert is doing, the idea that a partisan carnival makes economic sense—these are business decisions at the end of the day,” Carr told Squawk Box.
What People Are Saying
Gomez said in her dissent: “After months of cowardly capitulation to this Administration, Paramount finally got what it wanted. Unfortunately, it is the American public who will ultimately pay the price for its actions.
“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 … 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.”
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts wrote on X: “BREAKING NEWS: Trump’s government just approved Paramount’s merger with Skydance. Sure looks like they paid Donald Trump $36 MILLION for this merger. Bribery is illegal no matter who is president.”
Carr said on CNBC Friday: “President Trump is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape and the way he’s doing that is, when he ran for election, he ran directly at these legal broadcast media outlets … For years government officials just allowed those entities … to dictate the political narrative and he has fundamentally changed the game.”
What Happens Next
Despite the FCC’s approval, Paramount’s headaches may not be quite over as it faces sharp blowback from its own TV shows over Colbert’s cancellation and its dealings with the Trump administration.
“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart delivered a blistering monologue on Monday, ripping his corporate bosses for settling with Trump and subsequently cancelling Colbert’s show. And on Wednesday night, the iconic satirical comedy show “South Park” premiered its 27th season with an episode that made fun of the president’s genitalia while comparing him to the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The “South Park” episode was particularly remarkable given that it came one day after the show’s creators inked a $1.5 billion streaming deal with Paramount.
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