The decision by executives at Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS News,  to drastically scale back their once-ballyhooed diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives is sparking an internal backlash, with left-wing staff members sending an anonymous, “blistering letter,” as a New York Times reporter described it, comparing the move to paying off a mob boss. 

At the same time, Paramount is also in settlement conversations with President Trump to resolve his $20 billion lawsuit over the now-notorious “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Harris. Any settlement would be done over strong opposition from CBS News’ liberal staff. But Paramount is preparing to be acquired by Skydance, the company owned by the son of billionaire Larry Ellsion, and the transaction requires government approval. Paramount’s leadership is anxious to resolve any differences with Mr. Trump.

Paramount Global, which owns CBS News, said late last month that it would roll back some of its “diversity, equity and inclusion”  initiatives in the wake of Mr. Trump’s executive order that directs the federal government to encourage private companies to abandon diversity initiatives and identify potential “civil compliance investigations.”  

An unsigned, open letter was sent to Paramount’s co-CEOs, George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy, and Brian Robbins. Messrs. Cheeks and McCarthy are both openly gay and have been influential in pushing diversity initiatives. The letter, which was obtained by the New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin, reads, “As employees of Paramount Global, we are extremely disappointed — but not surprised — by the senior leadership team’s decision to roll back our commitments to DEI. 

“This capitulation reflects the profound hypocrisy in extracting labor from diverse communities, creating content from and for diverse communities, targeting the dollars of diverse communities… while committing to the erasure and exclusion of those very same diverse communities,” the staffers whined. 

The letter accused Paramount of following “unethical policies that do not apply to us in order to curry political favor.”

“Continuing to kiss the ring and pay off mob bosses so they don’t interfere in business leads us down a path we cannot come back from,” the letter said. “We are tired of being passed around from billionaire to billionaire, never seeing the fruits of our labor, and instead watching profits distributed to the wealthy.”

The letter accuses the co-executives of making the decision “at the cost of our humanity” and says that staffers are “ashamed to be employees of a company that will bulldoze our ‘company culture’ for a shortsighted pursuit of profit.”

The angry staffers also took a closing shot at the current leadership of Paramount as they said they “trust” the incoming leadership – of the Paramount-Skydance conglomeration if the deal goes through – to “consider the role they play in shaping and repairing our society.”

Representatives for Paramount and CBS did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment.

Some of the changes Paramount is making include an end to “aspirational numerical goals related to the race, ethnicity, sex or gender of hires” and keeping track of information of job applicants’ ethnicity and sex data, except where it is required. 

Mr. Cheeks, whom the Hollywood press has reported is expected to stay at the company when the sale closes, has been one of the primary drivers of DEI at CBS. He had previously issued a mandate for the network to “set a goal that all writers’ rooms on the network’s primetime series be staffed 40 percent [with] BIPOC in the 2021-2022 season.” The next year, the quota was raised to 50 percent for writers and cast members. Those quotas sparked a lawsuit from a freelance scriptwriter for CBS’ “SEAL Team,” Brian Beneker, who claimed he was denied a position because he is a straight, white man. 

In August, CBS tried to get the case thrown out. However, the Los Angeles-based judge denied the request, and the case is still pending. 

The Paramount staff revolt against the DEI rollback, likening it to paying off a “mob boss,” could not come at a worse time for the studio as its deal with Skydance appears to be in peril on multiple fronts. 

In his lawsuit, Mr. Trump alleges “60 Minutes” edited the interview to remove what critics call a “word salad” from Ms. Harris’ answer to a question about Israel in an attempt to make her sound coherent at a time when she was under fierce criticism for avoiding news interviews and speaking nonsense. “60 Minutes,” Mr. Trump maintains, actively sought to aid Ms. Harris’ election bid.

CBS News maintains there was nothing improper about its editing choices and that they were made due to time restraints. Left-wing legal scholars have called the lawsuit “meritless.” However, thus far, the Texas-based judge overseeing the case has declined to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed in the Northern District of Texas, where courts have become known for rulings that tend to favor conservatives.

The “60 Minutes” scandal has opened the network up to a variety of legal pitfalls, which could endanger the Skydance deal. On the one hand, the FCC – which has to approve the deal – re-opened a “news distortion” investigation and ordered CBS News to hand over the unedited transcript of Ms. Harris’ interview. 

And as Mr. Trump’s lawsuit has unfolded, the outgoing head of Paramount, Shari Redstone, and the man tapped to replace her once the Skydance deal is approved, former NBC executive Jeff Shell, have reportedly been ramping up pressure to reach a settlement with the president. 

Mr. Shell and Ms. Redstone argue that the best way to handle Mr. Trump’s lawsuit is a settlement, which they believe could help ensure the merger with Skydance is approved by the federal government. 

Multiple reports have previously indicated that Ms. Redstone has been pushing for a settlement. However, some executives fear that aside from setting a precedent of trying to appease the president, a settlement could come with legal risks as it could be seen as a bribe to secure approval of the merger deal.

Mr. Trump confirmed the settlement talks to reporters last week during his first Cabinet meeting, adding that he believes any settlement deal would need to have a hefty price tag because he thinks the “60 Minutes” edits could have cost him the election, though he did not offer an example of an amount that would satisfy him.

One way to avoid the appearance of the settlement being a bribe (which could expose CBS executives to possible criminal charges) would be for CBS News to admit wrongdoing in the way it edited Ms. Harris’ interview. However, the chief executive of CBS News, Wendy McMahon, and the executive producer of “60 Minutes, Bill Owens, have been firmly against the idea. Journalist Oliver Darcy reports it is now a “red line” they will not cross.

In a meeting last month that was reported by the New York Times, Mr. Owens told staff, “There have been reports in the media about a settlement and/or apology. The company knows I will not apologize for anything we have done.”

“The edit is perfectly fine; let’s put that to bed so we can get on with our lives,” he said, referring to releasing the transcript, which the FCC had just ordered CBS to do.

The release of the transcript last month did not diminish the controversy. While the mainstream media claimed the transcripts showed no unethical behavior on the part of CBS, conservative critics pointed out that the edit clearly removed the first part of Ms. Harris’ answer, which was a “word salad,” deceptively creating the impression that she immediately answered the question about Prime Minister Netanyahu coherently.

In addition to the constant drip of embarrassing leaks surrounding CBS News and the merger deal, the latest reporting about Mr. Shell’s pressure to settle Mr. Trump’s lawsuit could put the merger at risk.

Companies that are seeking to merge are supposed to act as competitors until the government approves the deal. The intervention by Mr. Shell could be seen as a form of “gun jumping,” or illegal pre-merger coordination between the two companies, that could spark further scrutiny from the FCC, which has the authority to approve or reject the deal.

In addition to the chaos stemmed by the damaging leaks from the Tiffany Network, the Paramount-Skydance appeared to be in peril for an entirely separate reason. On Monday, a judge in Delaware, Kathaleen McCormick, heard arguments from New York City’s public pension fund arguing that the process that led to the deal was not open enough. The fund is seeking to block the deal to ensure other potential bidders can make an offer for Paramount.

Ms. McCormick did not rule on the request, but she did ask the pension for more information on its complaint, which was seen by some observers as a potential sign she might – at least temporarily – block the deal. 

Last year, she rejected a $56 billion pay package for Elon Musk that Telsa’s stakeholders had approved. 

The concerns of the appearance of impropriety related to a settlement of Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, the process in which the merger with Skydance was agreed to, and the decision to roll back DEI initiatives come at a critical time for Paramount, as executives believe the FCC could approve the deal as soon as March 18. 

Paramount has seen declining profits from shrinking ad revenue and cable TV customers, and the Skydance deal is seen as a way to infuse the legacy studio with much-needed cash and revamp its model to make it profitable.