Justin Baragona
Fri, August 22, 2025
Donald Trump heaped praise on the new owner of CBS, saying Paramount chief executive David Ellison is a “great man” whom he knows “very well,” adding that Ellison is “going to do the right thing” with the network.
The president’s Friday remarks come a day after House Democrats launched an investigation into the politically fraught $8 billion merger between Paramount and Ellison’s Skydance, which was approved by the Trump administration shortly after the president extracted a $16 million settlement in his “meritless” lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.
Speaking to reporters on Friday morning following the FBI raiding the home of his former national security adviser-turned-critic John Bolton, which Trump insisted he knew “nothing about” beforehand, the president turned his attention to boasting about his federal takeover of Washington, D.C.
In typical Trumpian fashion, the president went on a tangent about the “fake news” not giving him credit for deploying military troops on the streets of the nation’s capital, which he falsely claimed had a 90 percent approval rating. In reality, the vast majority of D.C. residents oppose the move and feel it makes them less safe.
After mocking MSNBC’s upcoming name change, claiming it was “because they‘re ashamed of it and they‘re disassociating it from NBC, which is also fake news,” Trump then brought up CBS and Ellison – and had nothing but good things to say.
Donald Trump boasts that new CBS owner David Ellison ‘will do the right thing’ and is a ‘great man.’ (AFP/Getty)
“I think the news is getting better. They‘re learning that they have no credibility,” he declared. “CBS was just sold to a great person that I know very well.”
Trump continued: “A great man. He actually just bought CBS. And I think he‘s going to do the right thing with it.”
Ellison is the son of close Trump ally and megadonor Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder who invested billions of dollars in David Ellison’s Skydance merger with Paramount. Weeks before the Federal Communications Commission – led by Trump’s hand-picked chairman Brendan Carr – finally approved the Skydance-Paramount deal, Trump similarly sang the younger Ellison’s praises.
“Ellison’s great,” the president told reporters in mid-June. “He’ll do a great job with it.”
Earlier this week, the ranking members of the House Judiciary and Energy and Commerce committees sent Ellison a letter demanding documents and correspondence related to the administration’s approval process of the Paramount merger, which officially closed on August 7.
Specifically, the two Democratic congressmen are seeking answers surrounding not only the settlement of the Trump lawsuit, which has sparked accusations of bribery from lawmakers and free press organizations, but also the president’s claim that he reached a “side deal” with Ellison.
Shortly after the previous Paramount leadership announced it was paying Trump $16 million to settle the 60 Minutes complaint, Trump boasted that Ellison had agreed to air up to $20 million of pro-Trump advertisements and programming on CBS once the merger went through. While the old Paramount denied any knowledge of any secret agreement, Ellison has remained mum on the matter.
“This offer was necessarily contingent on the FCC approving the deal and does not appear to present any legitimate value to the public, only to President Trump,” Reps. Frank Pallone and Jamie Raskin wrote Ellison this week. “Therefore, this appears to be an offer of payment and benefits to a government official designed to achieve a specific outcome from the government — in other words, a bribe.”
Ellison is currently facing a congressional investigation over the circumstances surrounding the Trump administration’s approval process of the company’s merger with Skydance. (Paramount)
Additionally, the Democrats are inquiring about Paramount’s decision to cancel the top-rated late-night show hosted by outspoken Trump critic Stephen Colbert just days before the merger was approved, as well as Skydance’s assurance to the FCC that it would review “complaints of bias” at CBS News and eliminate all diversity hiring practices. Both Trump and Carr publicly celebrated Colbert’s cancellation.
On top of that, Raskin and Pallone noted that during the negotiations with Trump to settle the lawsuit, which CBS lawyers said was “without merit” and legal experts described as frivolous, the executive producer of 60 Minutes and CBS News chief Wendy McMahon both resigned in protest.
“Two wrongs do not make a right—illegitimate demands from the FCC or the Administration do not absolve your company from wrongdoing,” the letter to Ellison stated. “If Skydance offered a side deal of up to $20 million worth of advertisement or programming to President Trump in order to receive regulatory approval for the merger with Paramount, these actions would run afoul of federal and state anti-bribery statutes.”
The lawmakers added: “Similarly, if Paramount forced out CBS’s longtime leaders, spent $16 million to settle a sham lawsuit with President Trump, or cancelled a highly popular comedy show that President Trump dislikes in order to curry favor with the Administration and to receive regulatory approval for the merger with Skydance, these actions would likely further embolden President Trump to use lawsuits and regulatory authority to attack media organizations that he finds objectionable in order to silence them.”
In the meantime, it appears that Ellison and his senior leadership are preparing to enact painful cuts to the news network. Puck’s Dylan Byers reported this week that Paramount sources had told him CBS News was losing around $50 million a year, a claim a CBS News spokesperson pushed back hard against, saying the news division is “currently profitable.”
Still, based on the Byers item, it appears that Ellison and Paramount president Jeff Shell are laying the groundwork to make sweeping layoffs at CBS News – and soon. “The stage has been set for a round of painful cost-cutting,” Status News’ Oliver Darcy noted. “In other words, the disputed number may ultimately be less important than the larger narrative it helps justify: CBS News is about to face some painful budget cuts.”
House Dems push bribery inquiry into Paramount-Skydance after Trump deal
Ja'han Jones
Fri, August 22, 2025
MSNBC
House Dems push bribery inquiry into Paramount-Skydance after Trump deal
House Democrats are pressing forward with an inquiry into potential bribery by Paramount-Skydance as it pursued a multibillion-dollar merger approved by Trump’s Federal Communications Commission last month.
In a letter sent Thursday to Paramount-Skydance CEO David Ellison, Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Frank Pallone of New Jersey demand documents related to the Trump administration’s communications with company officials as the merger awaited approval by Project 2025 co-author and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. They write:
Four weeks ago, after months of delay, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved what on August 7, 2025, became an $8 billion merger between your company, Skydance Media, LLC (Skydance), and Paramount Global (Paramount). Alarmingly, the FCC’s decision came only after Skydance and Paramount agreed to provide millions of dollars in payments and free services to Donald Trump himself and millions to support his future presidential library respectively. Further, as a condition of the merger, it appears Skydance has agreed to install someone to police CBS’s editorial decisions, promising to conduct a ‘comprehensive review of CBS’ and to appoint an ‘ombudsman’ to root out ‘bias.’
Trump has claimed that the settlement of his lawsuit against CBS, over edits made to a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, included millions of dollars in free advertising, in addition to $16 million Paramount committed to funding his presidential library. Paramount officials have denied that there is any arrangement beyond the legal settlement, according to a recent New York Times report.
Paramount-Skydance did not respond immediately to MSNBC’s request for comment.
The Democrats also want information about the company’s decision to cancel “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “which President Trump openly dislikes, shortly after Mr. Colbert’s on-air criticism of Paramount’s settlement as a ‘big fat bribe.’”
Carr himself celebrated the “Late Show” cancellation after it was announced and avoided giving a straight answer when a Fox News host asked him whether Trump was involved in any way. Trump’s chairman has shown a willingness to politicize the merger review process with his vow to block mergers involving companies with policies that promote diversity. He’s also weaponized the commission against media outlets that Trump and other conservatives have criticized.
Later in their letter, Raskin and Pallone also sound the alarm on private conversations that Ellison, the Skydance CEO, reportedly had with Trump before the merger was announced. Specifically they demand Ellison and Paramount-Skydance turn over any documents — including communications company officials may have had with one another, with Trump Organization officials, with the FCC or with other members of the Trump administration — related to the settlement or the merger. They also seek clarification on whether Paramount-Skydance plans to offer any free services to Trump, as he’s alleged.
The Democrats say the allegations, if true, “would likely further embolden President Trump to use lawsuits and regulatory authority to attack media organizations that he finds objectionable in order to silence them,” and that “these actions by Paramount would also be illegal, running afoul of federal and state anti-bribery statutes.”
A separate probe into possible bribery has been launched by officials in California.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Paramount Job Cuts Coming In November, With Cost Savings To Exceed $2 Billion
Anthony D'Alessandro
Fri, August 22, 2025
The Skydance-owned Paramount is expecting to begin pink-slipping around November, we understand.
Deadline has been told by myriad sources that it’s about the dollar figure amount as far as job cuts go, not necessarily the headcount, though the number of positions being eliminated across theatrical, streaming, linear and all other divisions is expected to be between 2,500-3,000.
While it’s been out there that the incoming Skydance team led by David Ellison has been working with Bain & Company to identify at least $2 billion in cost efficiencies, Ellison emphasized last week during Paramount’s post-merger press conference that cost-cutting is bound to “exceed” $2 billion.
Managers will be submitting their list of dismissals to HR between September and October.
“We do not want to be a company that has layoffs every quarter,” Paramount president Jeff Shell told the media at the new conglom’s presser last week. “So, it’s going to be painful. It’s always hard, but we don’t want to be a company that every quarter is laying people off.”
“So, it is important for us to get done what we’re doing in one big thing and then be done with it,” he added
Paramount counts 18,000 employees around the globe, while Skydance has a staff that’s under 2,000.
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