Why the Paramount-Skydance merger stays in FCC purgatory
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is unimpressed with CBS and it may very well be expensive for the Tiffany Community, On The Cash has discovered.
At difficulty: A latest push by the woke TV community for the Federal Communications Fee and Carr to drop its investigation into alleged violations of the company’s so-called “public curiosity guidelines” involving the controversial “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris.
The inquiry is a lingering sore spot for the community. Not solely is it casting doubt on its inner ethics, specifically that it unfairly edited the interview with the gaffe-prone Democratic presidential candidate to make her look good within the warmth of the 2024 election. It’s also a key ingredient holding up FCC approval for CBS dad or mum Paramount’s long-sought sale to unbiased film studio Skydance.
In a latest submitting, CBS stated its launch of the complete transcript of the interview exhibits it did nothing improper within the modifying course of and the case needs to be dismissed. Carr summarily rejected the proposal, saying his investigation will proceed.
Privately, On The Cash has discovered, he had harsher phrases for community brass.
Carr believes CBS has accomplished nothing to deliver the fee’s investigation to an finish, together with a repair for the alleged pervasive bias in its programming, in accordance with individuals with data of the matter.
“The case isn’t near being settled proper now,” is how one FCC official conversant in Carr’s considering put it to On The Cash. “Now CBS may are available in and make an enormous provide for cures tomorrow, however that doesn’t appear to be it’s on the desk.”
An FCC spokesman didn’t return a request for remark. A CBS rep declined to remark.
With out settlement discussions, the FCC’s inquiry may drag on for weeks, probably months additional delaying the Paramount-Skydance deal.
As reported by On The Cash, Skydance — which has but to get its hooks into Paramount and may very well be battling a rival bid for the media conglomerate — is weighing doable cures to push the approval course of alongside, together with an ombudsman to observe CBS information content material and ensure it’s freed from bias.
One other main headache for Paramount is President Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit towards CBS over the Harris interview.
Why does any of this matter for the merger? The FCC is the first regulator over the printed media enterprise that airs programming over public airwaves, versus cable. The company can deny native broadcast licenses to corporations and derail mergers when there’s proof that information content material violates its public curiosity guidelines by containing apparent political bias.
CBS Information has come below hearth from conservatives for years over an allegedly left-wing slant in its programming.
In the meantime, the “60 Minutes”-Harris interview has been steeped in controversy because it aired final Oct. 7. Conservative teams together with the Heart For American Rights, or CAR, quickly found that CBS beforehand had aired a promo of the Harris interview the place her reply to a query in regards to the Center East appeared markedly much less coherent than what ultimately ran on this system.
CAR filed a criticism with the FCC that triggered the investigation that’s now suspending the Skydance-Paramount deal.
