Skydance Promises FCC It Will Ensure CBS News Practices ‘Unbiased Journalism,’ Will End All DEI, When It Takes Over Paramount

Skydance Media is doubling down on its pledge to make changes at Paramount Global once its acquisition of the media giant is consummated, promising to rid CBS and other Paramount programming of liberal bias, and also to stamp out all diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. Paramount and Skydance have been seeking to win the Federal Communications Commission’s approval of their $8 billion merger, which has extended long beyond the commission’s regular timeline for reviewing such transactions. Left-wing scholars and reporters have speculated that a $20 billion lawsuit from President Trump over bias at CBS held up the review process. (Both the FCC and Paramount have publicly stated the two are unrelated.) With Paramount’s decision to pay $16 million to settle the lawsuit, multiple reports say that executives at both companies expect the government to finally approve their merger in the coming weeks.Since the settlement, there has been a flurry of activity as Skydance executives have met with FCC commissioners to discuss the deal. In a letter dated July 22, the general counsel and co-president of business operations at Skydance, Stephanie Kyoko McKinnon, said she was writing to “confirm the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that were in place at Paramount and to confirm our commitments moving forward.”“Skydance, for its part, does not have DEI programs in place today and will not establish such initiatives,” she said. “The company is committed to ensuring that its storytelling reflects the many audiences and communities it serves in a manner that complies with non-discrimination requirements.”Ms. McKinnon said Paramount’s current management initiated a review of its DEI policies after Mr. Trump issued a series of executive orders aimed at eliminating DEI. Her letter outlined the diversity policies that Paramount has vowed to eliminate, as well as the “additional commitments Skydance will make” after the deal is closed.The company “will not engage in any DEI-related disparate treatment in hiring decisions and no longer will set numerical goals related to the race, ethnicity sex, or gender of job applicants or employee hires in the United States. Instead, the company will focus on attracting talent from all geographies, backgrounds, and perspectives.” The letter noted Paramount vowed to eliminate DEI-related hiring practices in February. Paramount had one of the most robust DEI programs in the media business before the Trump administration began demanding that large corporations roll back their diversity initiatives. CBS, in particular, imposed racial quotas on staffing and spending decisions five years ago during the so-called racial reckoning after the death of George Floyd. The architect of CBS’s DEI policies, George Cheeks, the CBS chief, is hoping to survive the acquisition.According to the Skydance letter, Paramount will not “use race, ethnicity, sex, gender, or any other protected characteristics as criteria” in promotions for employees and will “award internal promotions based only on non-discriminatory criteria.” The company will also ensure that leadership and development programs are not based on race or gender, and that internships and mentoring will be “open to all consistent with Title VII.”Additionally, Paramount will “no longer consider any DEI objectives in its compensation plans.” Nor will it “set a minimum spend requirement for diverse suppliers.”(In the summer of 2020, at the height of the “racial reckoning,” CBS committed to devoting 25 percent of its development budget to buying programming from “black, indigenous and people of color” producers. It also pledged that its writers’ rooms, where TV shows are created, would be 50 percent BIPOC in time for the 2022-23 TV season. These pledges were abandoned when Mr. Trump returned to power. In April, CBS settled a lawsuit from a white writer for the now-canceled “SEAL Team” show who argued that the racial quotas were illegal.)Skydance says that once Paramount is under its dominion, the company will eliminate DEI offices and replace them with “roles that focus on employee culture and engagement.” It will also remove references to DEI from its websites, social media accounts, the Paramount Global Business Conduct Statement, and internal messaging and training materials.The Trump-appointed chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, previously threatened to block mergers of companies that have DEI policies. The commission told Paramount that it would have to drop its DEI policies as a condition of approving the merger, the Wall Street Journal reported in April.Ms. McKinnon also sought to “address concerns about media bias that have been raised in the record of this proceeding.”Ms. McKinnon reiterated Skydance’s commitment to “unbiased journalism” and to “presenting a diverse array of viewpoints on television” to “ensure that the company’s array of news and entertainment programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum, consistent with the varying perspectives of the viewing audience.”In a letter sent last week, an attorney for Skydance stated that the company’s chief executive, David Ellison — the son of the world’s second-richest man, Larry Ellison — is committed to unbiased journalism and non-discrimination. Notably, Ms. McKinnon stated that the management of “New Paramount” will ensure that its programs incorporate diverse viewpoints. She did not specifically mention CBS, which could signal that there will be changes to other properties owned by Paramount, such as Comedy Central, where the anti-Trump “The Daily Show” airs. CBS has garnered a significant amount of attention during the review process due to Mr. Trump’s lawsuit and allegations of an anti-Israel bias. Indeed, Ms. McKinnon’s letter specifically addressed CBS and vowed that the new owners will make sure its reporting is “fair, unbiased, and fact-based.” She said the new owners also commit to having an ombudsman at CBS to “receive and evaluate complaints of bias or other concerns involving CBS” for a “period of at least two years.”Throughout the process of Skydance’s merger with Paramount, media reporters have discussed what policies the new owners might implement or seek to roll back, as well as the changes that might be coming for the news division at CBS. A veteran media reporter at Puck, Matthew Belloni, said in a recent episode of his podcast “The Town” that Skydance might seek to commit to viewpoint diversity at CBS News — implying that the Tiffany Network would hire conservative voices to balance out complaints of a left-wing bias. Meanwhile, multiple reports have said that Mr. Ellison is in talks with the co-founder, Bari Weiss, of an anti-woke and pro-Israel outlet, the Free Press, to acquire the outlet. Mr. Belloni said that Ms. Weiss would act as a kind of “ideological guide” for the network. Mr. Belloni also reported that Mr. Ellison is in talks with a former CBS News and former Fox News executive, David Rhodes, to return to the network to manage its day-to-day operations. The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Ms. Weiss is seeking at least $200 million for the Free Press, a valuation that Puck’s Dylan Byers, in his Friday evening newsletter, described as outrageously high.While Skydance is laying out its commitment to unbiased journalism and eliminating DEI policies, the letters notably do not address perhaps one of the most controversial matters currently related to the merger: whether Paramount will air $20 million of conservative advertisements and public service announcements as a short-term band-aid to counteract deeply ingrained liberal bias at CBS News and at entertainment talk shows such as “The Daily Show”Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday that he anticipates “receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars.”The current management of Paramount has denied that the settlement included “PSAs or anything related to PSAs” and said, “Paramount has no knowledge of any promises or commitments made to President Trump other than those set forth in the settlement proposed by the mediator and accepted by the parties.”For its part, Skydance has been stubbornly silent on the matter, declining to comment on whether it made a commitment as part of the settlement. An unnamed source at Skydance, however, told Variety that the company did not make a side deal. It’s possible, though, that the advertisements and PSAs could be a condition set by the FCC for approval of the merger, which might help to diffuse the allegations that Skydance and Mr. Trump’s team engaged in improper negotiations during the settlement process.

Skydance Promises FCC It Will Ensure CBS News Practices ‘Unbiased Journalism,’ Will End All DEI, When It Takes Over Paramount

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