Trump’s FCC Chair Says CBS Vow to Drop ‘Bias’ and ‘DEI’ Made the ‘Difference’ in Paramount Deal Approval

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr said that CBS’s decision to “get rid” of diversity initiatives and programming “bias” was what “made the difference” in the panel’s decision to approve a merger between the network’s parent company Paramount Global and SkyDance Media.

The FCC approved the $8 billion deal in 2-1 vote on Thursday that saw Trump appointee Carr finally throw his support behind the merger, which came after CBS settled a lawsuit with President Donald Trump for $16 million.

After Thursday’s decision, Commissioner Ana Gomez blasted the “unprecedented” handling of the deal in a scathing dissent, accusing the “once-independent FCC” of having “used its vast power to pressure Paramount to broker a private legal settlement and further erode press freedom.”

During an interview with Carr on CNBC’s Squawk Box On The Street on Friday, host David Faber challenged the chairman on Gomez’s comments.

Carr began by lauding Trump for “fundamentally reshaping the media landscape”:

Listen, you know, if you step back, what’s happening here is, you know, I think 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 legacy broadcast media outlets, ABC, NBC, CBS.

For years, you know, government officials just allowed those entities with execs sitting in Hollywood in New York to dictate the political narrative. And he has fundamentally changed the game. And you see that really having consequences that are just rushing all through the media.

Rounding on the deal itself and its approval, Carr said that CBS’s move to satisfy the panel with certain concessions “made the difference”:

The thing that was really important to me in all of this was that the new owners of CBS came in and said, it’s time for a change. We’re gonna reorient it towards getting rid of bias, to looking at fact-based reporting. They said they’re gonna get rid of invidious forms of DEI discrimination. At the end of the day, that’s what made the difference for us in terms of our review at the agency.

Indeed, internal “change” at CBS was reported before the merger as the lawsuit concluded.

In April, 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens resigned, citing a loss of editorial independence in a sentiment echoed by anchor Scott Pelley, who said Paramount had begun “to supervise our content in new ways.”

The network also announced last week the cancellation of The Late Show, hosted by Stephen Colbert, a vocal Trump critic, in a move some critics like fellow late night host Jon Stewart have also framed as appeasement to Trump in order to win a greenlight for the merger. CBS denied this, saying the show was cancelled for financial reasons.

Watch above via CNBC.