Of Paramount Importance

In an op-ed for the New York Times yesterday, David Ellison -- owner of Paramount Skydance -- tried to explain to those concerned with his company's attempted purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery that he wouldn't be influenced by his relationship with Trump. Paramount Skydance recently put the purchase on hold until 2027 after numerous state Attorneys General filed a lawsuit to block the sale.

Ellison wrote that he felt it was the inclusion of CNN in the sale, combined the Paramount Skydance already owning CBS, that was the major cause of concern for many. However, while it is a big concern for critics, arguably a larger issue -- so much so that it was the foundation of the lawsuit -- is Paramount wanting to buy Warner Bros., which is seen as anti-competitive in the movie and TV industries.

Still, though, in his defense of the purchase of CNN, Mr. Ellison wrote --

“I believe that news should be based on facts and truth. Great news organizations like CNN and CBS News are here to tell it straight down the middle. That requires newsrooms that reflect the whole world, not one side of it. And it requires independence. Our journalists will continue to answer to the facts and to all the people they serve — not to any party or cause.”

Ellison added, "While I was silent, others were happy to write my story for me. No more."

The words sound noble, and he might even believe them. However, as the expression goes, actions speak louder than words, and since Paramount Skydance purchased CBS, and put Bari Weiss in charge, the legendary 'Tiffany Network' has been ripped apart. Long the most respected leader in television news, after installing a new anchor for its evening news broadcast, and changing editorial policies, viewers noted that stories showed what seemed to be less "independence," and a more Trump administration-friendly reflection -- and CBS has quickly plummeted to a distant third in the ratings, with its lowest numbers ever.

Additionally, they have dismantled 60 Minutes, the decades-long gold standard of news magazine shows. New leadership has been installed, and many of its respected journalists have quit. Not because the changes were based on facts and truth, or telling stories "straight down the middle," but because "all the people they served" turned out to be management meddling and pushing the focus to the right.

Not to mention the firing of Stephen Colbert, the # 1-rated late night talk show, because (supposedly) the show was losing money. Never mind that no longer having this highly popular platform means that CBS no longer has an outlet from which to promote its own series, which would seem to be something extremely valuable.

It's also worth noting that when Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post, he made similar, noble pronouncements about the news. Yet policies for the editorial pages soon began changing, even to the extent that when the paper had written an endorsement of Kamala Harris for president, Bezos blocked it and no endorsement was issued. So, skepticism of David Ellison's words are doubled. Not just from Paramount Skydance's actions with CBS, but the experience of others.

And again, his words may be well-meaning and something Mr. Ellison truly does believe (the reality of CBS actions aside...), but as we've seen not just with Jeff Bezos but other billionaires and corporate leaders, when you have so many business ventures, many of which might require government approval, the best intentions have seemed to carry far less weight than the most noble of words. "Far less" shall be referenced here to mean "zero."

I hope that David Ellison actually does mean what he writes here. And I hope, should the Paramount Skydance merger go through with Warner Bros. Discovery, that he sticks to it. I don't expect it, given the evidence of actions taken thus far, and given that Mr. Ellison suggests that CBS News had been biased to the left, when what he was really seeing was not "bias" but a news division that did what news divisions do, which is not roll over for the administration and instead criticize flaws when they exist (which appears to be substantial, considering that the public seems to think such is the case, given Trump's 32% approval), but it's possible, and I live in hope!

Most of all, among all my hopes here, I hope -- for many reasons -- that the merger does not go through.

For all his best intentions, I don't think that David Ellison was successful in assuaging the concerns of critics. And in some ways, for how he wrote his own story, may even have reinforced them. How much this was influenced by his multi-billionaire father Larry Ellison, who is far-right and a strong supporter of Trump and the main force behind all these corporate buy-outs, rather than what David Ellison most believes and want, I don't know. We can only go by the evidence thus far, by the words written, and by fair-competition issues created by other aspects of the merger. And what happens next in court and in the boardrooms, we'll find out.