The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under Chairman Brendan Carr is unlikely to approve the $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance Media due to concerns over bias in local TV broadcast content. Despite a settlement with President Trump’s lawsuit against CBS, which was a major hurdle for the deal, Carr remains cautious.
Carr, a conservative activist, believes that the mainstream broadcast media have flouted FCC “public interest rules” governing local TV broadcast licensing. He interprets the First Amendment as giving CBS or any local affiliate freedom to publish what they want, but not necessarily FCC approval for local broadcast licenses. In his view, news content must not contain political bias.
The deal faces several conditions that may be imposed by the FCC, including releasing full transcripts of interviews and potentially appointing an ombudsman to monitor news content. The FCC also plans to discuss remedies related to a complaint filed by a conservative legal group, which sparked the investigation of CBS.
Chairman Carr’s stance on this issue reflects his desire to scrutinize TV bias and ensure that news content is not influenced by political agendas. This decision may be seen as a test case for CBS, which has been accused of deceptive editing in a presidential candidate’s interview. The merger is expected to proceed with conditions, regardless of opposition from progressive groups.
Source: https://nypost.com/2025/07/11/media/why-fcc-chair-will-continue-to-throttle-paramount-skydance-merger-despite-trump-settlement