Skydance David Ellison signed up at FCC CBS News would have “varied ideological perspectives”

More than a year after Skydance Media and its partners won an agreement with Shari Redstone and Paramount Global to merge companies, the FCC has not yet acted on a request to approve the transfer of CBS licenses to the new property.

Earlier this week, Skydance chief David Ellison met the president of the FCC, Brendan Carr and others, to the Commission, to put pressure for their approval – and in particular, Ellison promised that “the editorial decision of CBS reflects the varied ideological prospects of American viewers”.

This is important because Carr, appointed by Trump, had reopened an agency investigation on a complaint of “news distortion” against CBS concerning the alleged deceptive assembly of an “60 -minute” interview with the segment of Kamala Harris – the same interview as Trump continued Paramount and CBS, and that Paramount earlier ago two weeks ago, announced that it was agreed to settle $ 16 million. In an interview of February 7 Fox News with Martha MacCallum, Carr cited Trump’s trial against CBS and said that the president “was right about these media biases”. Carr continued: “He came out early and said: ‘This thing [“60 Minutes” interview] It looks like it was quite cut. “” The application of the “distortion of news” of the FCC in this way was very unusual, according to the former officials of the agency.

On Tuesday, July 15, Ellison and his lawyer, Matthew A. Brill de Latham & Watkins, met Carr, as well as the chief of staff of Carr, Greg Watson and Ben Arden, special advisor to the office of the head of the FCC media office. According to a letter from Brill published Friday in the FCC file for the case, Ellison and Brill “underlined the benefits of public interests” of the Skydance-Paramount transaction and “we also urged the media office to be granted quickly” to the granting quickly “from the transfer of CBS licenses to” New Paramount “.

Among the subjects, Ellison and Brill discussed during the FCC meeting were “the commitment of Skydance towards impartial journalism and its adoption of various points of view, the principles which will guarantee the editorial decision of CBS reflect the varied ideological perspectives of American viewers”.

Carr, on the other hand, defended the objective of the Trump administration to eradicate the programs of diversity, equity and inclusion, qualifying the policies of “forms of invites discrimination”. To this end, Ellison and his Lawrer “noted the commitment of Skydance to promote non-discrimination and equal opportunities for employment in New Paramount, ensuring that the company is fully in line with the law.”

Regarding the “important benefits of Skydance-Paramount Transaction, Ellison and Brill” explained that the Ellison and Redbird family represent a new leadership with the vision and experience necessary to stimulate the growth of New Paramount in the long term in the face of the challenges presented by the landscape of the media of today, while preserving and improving the heritage and a large range of television by CBS and 28 UNITED STATES.

If and when the Paramount-Skydance agreement closes to create “Paramount Skydance Corp.”, Redstone, which is paramount controlling the shareholder, is defined to leave the card of the merged company. Ellison would assume the role of CEO and president of the combined Paramount-Skydance. The company would be controlled by the Ellison family and would remain listed on the stock market.

In the photo above: David Ellison, Brendan Carr