In September of this year, report that Paramount Skydance Corporation is planning a nearly all-cash bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.
Paramount Skydance Corp. owns streaming services such as Paramount+, movie studio Paramount Pictures, CBS and a variety of other TV stations. Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. owns HBO, the Discovery Channel and CNN, among other brands.
A merger between the two would likely result in a consolidation of the streaming platforms and movie production companies. Paramount is planning nearly 2,500 job cuts, resulting in the company’s expenses being reduced by $2 billion.
Perhaps the most concerning part of this is the prospect that two of the most influential news organizations in the world, CBS News and CNN, would be under the management of a company that has repeatedly capitulated to the demands of the second Trump administration.
In July, Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement of President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against CBS News over their editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris during the election season. This is after CBS News and its parent company, Paramount, referred to the lawsuit as “meritless” no more than a month earlier in June.
The reason for this drastic turn was that Paramount was facing scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission over its $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. Paramount needed the approval of the FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr. The merger was finally approved once CBS pledged to eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices in the hiring process, a practice Trump has pushed heavily against through his campaign and administration.
Recently, CBS canceled “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” citing financial concerns. The cancellation was rather timely, as days before Colbert called Paramount’s settlement, “a big fat bribe” on air.
This is not an issue of left or right, liberal or conservative or Democrat or Republican, but rather it is an issue of integrity in journalism.
Paramount Skydance Corp. is making every effort on the business end to please this administration. This is sacrificing much more than anyone realizes on the journalistic end to appease large corporations.
The more a newsroom feels the pressure of ownership breathing down its neck, the more self-censorship there will be. Reporters may think twice about pursuing a story if it could impact the reputation of one of the other brands or companies owned by the media conglomerate employing them.
The line between legacy media and business is continually being blurred.
In February, Amazon CEO and billionaire owner of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, announced the publication would not be publishing any columns opposing the issues of personal liberties and free markets.
This is a dramatic shift away from what The Washington Post has always valued. An outlet whose slogan is “Democracy Dies in Darkness” should not be going out of its way under any circumstances to protect the interests and ideals of a ruling party on either side of the aisle.
With the public’s trust in the media at its lowest it’s been in five decades, due in part to continued fear-mongering from the Trump administration, the focus of publications should be on impartiality and objective fact-based reporting.
A media merger of this scale would typically draw scrutiny from the FCC, but with the leniency they have shown to media organizations willing to comply with the demands of the second Trump administration, there is no reason to suspect strong resistance.
This sets a dangerous precedent that encourages news organizations to sacrifice the values at the core of their industry in exchange for regulatory favor and corporate gain. It’s mergers and business moves like this one that cloud the future of journalism and erode trust in an institution too valuable for our democracy to lose.
Luke Viviano is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Luke about their column? Email them at lv914224@ohio.edu.
