The expected new owner of Paramount Global, Skydance Media, is reportedly in talks to buy the Free Press and potentially give its co-founder a powerful role at beleaguered CBS News, which Paramount controls. But before the deal is even done, there are signs that the left-wing staff at the network may try to sabotage the venture.
Paramount agreed July 1 to pay $16 million to settle President Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against CBS over Vice President Harris’ October 2024 interview on “60 Minutes.” The lawsuit was seen by Paramount’s board as standing in the way of Federal Communications Commission approval of Skydance’s acquisition of the company, according to published reports.
There is now speculation that the FCC will approve the Skydance deal soon. Mr. Trump has given his support for the deal. Skydance is run by David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder and Trump supporter Larry Ellison, who recently displaced Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos to become the second richest man in the world.
The settlement between Paramount and Mr. Trump did not involve an apology, which the Trump team had initially demanded. This has led to speculation about whether the Ellisons intend to address accusations of liberal and anti-Israel bias that have dogged the CBS News for decades. Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, for instance, centered on how “60 Minutes” edited its Harris interview to make her sound more coherent.
The far-left media journalist, Oliver Darcy, reported in his closely read Status newsletter last month that Mr. Ellison had met with the co-founder of the Free Press, Bari Weiss, and discussed a potential role for her at the Tiffany network. Ms. Weiss, who’s known for her opposition to “wokeness” and her staunch support of Israel, would help calm both sides.
In Wednesday evening’s Puck newsletter, the liberal media reporter Dylan Byers wrote that the idea was that Ms. Weiss would be “a spiritual advisor” to CBS News, rather than a manager “which is also not her strong suit.” (Breaker, another closely read media newsletter, reported on high turnover and discontent at the Free Press, with staff members quoted comparing Ms. Weiss to Shane Smith, the co-founder of Vice). .
Last week, the New York Post reported that Skydance is in talks to buy the Free Press. Mr. Ellison and Ms. Weiss were seen at the Allen & Co. conference at Sun Valley, Idaho, fueling speculation that a deal is in the works.
The Wrap notes that the conference has been the “launchpad of deals such as Disney’s 1995 acquisition of ABC and Comcast’s $30 billion takeover of NBCUniversal in 2011.” Allen & Co. is also a shareholder of the Free Press.
Mr. Ellison and Ms. Weiss discussed “several potential collaborations,” the Post reported, including one that would involve “shaping CBS News’ editorial direction.”
Paramount’s settlement with Mr. Trump was only $16 million, far less than the $20 billion Trump had sued for. But there are multiple reports – confirmed by Mr. Trump while speaking to reporters – that there is a side deal to air, once Skydance takes over, public service announcements for conservative causes, which would bring the value of the deal closer to $30 million. Paramount has denied any such deal.
The reported agreement to air public service announcements was first reported by Fox News, and the Washington Free Beacon confirmed it with its own sources. Mr. Trump said after that report, “We did a deal for about $16 million plus $16 million, or maybe more than that, in advertising… It’s like $32 to maybe $35 million.”
Skydance did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment.
Whether bringing on Ms. Weiss and other members of the Free Press would lead to substantive, lasting changes at CBS News seems unlikely. An unnamed CBS News source told the Post, “What Ellison needs to understand is that the anchors and the show executives think they can outlast any executive choice.”
The source also described a “drag-your-feet” mentality at the network, in which staff ignore directives from executives and try to hold out until their bosses are replaced. The source told the Post, “Bari Weiss will have an axe in her head in three minutes.”
While the focus has been on the “60 Minutes” Harris interview, Mr. Byers writes in his Puck column that the larger concerns that the Ellisons – and outgoing Paramount owner Shari Redstone – have with CBS News is its alleged anti-Israel bias.
In February, the embattled head of editorial and newsgathering, Adrienne Roark, announced her resignation after just seven months on the job. Ms. Roark came under fire after she reprimanded morning show host Tony Dokoupil for his aggressive questioning of anti-Israel author Ta-Nehisi Coates about his latest book, “The Message.” The Free Press published a surreptitious audio recording of the staff meeting during which Ms. Roark chastised Mr. Dokoupil. This led to CBS News being widely denounced, and Ms. Redstone said publicly she thought CBS News had made a serious mistake in rebuking Mr. Dokoupil, whom she took out to lunch.
Shortly after the reprimand (which happened importunely on the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel), the Free Press published editorial standards guidelines from within CBS News that cautioned staff against referring to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel or calling Hamas a terrorist organization.
“60 Minutes” also aired two anti-Israel segments in recent months, despite the brouhaha elsewhere at CBS News over the Israel-Hamas war.
“60 Minutes” has long been known to act independently of the rest of CBS News or of Paramount. The staff’s resistance to their bosses’ wishes was on full display in the spring. As Paramount executives tried to resolve Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, “60 Minutes” programmers ran multiple stories attacking the president’s policies.
CBS News has seen a series of high-profile departures recently.
The “60 Minutes” show’s executive producer, Bill Owens, was forced out in April.
Mr. Owens firmly defended the Harris interview and opposed the idea of a settlement. Mr. Darcy, the media journalist, reported that he and the former head of CBS News and Stations, Wendy McMahon, had told their bosses that an apology was a “red line” they would not cross.
After Mr. Owens’ ouster, a “60 Minutes” star, Scott Pelley, delivered a rare on-air rebuke of Paramount executives and linked the firing to the company’s attempt to win approval of the Skydance deal. Mr. Pelley also told a CNN journalist and fellow “60 Minutes” correspondent, Anderson Cooper, that he believed settling Mr. Trump’s lawsuit would be “very damaging” to CBS and Paramount.
Another “60 Minutes” star, Lesley Stahl, said in an interview with “The New Yorker Radio Hour” that she was “angry” with Ms. Redstone over her efforts to secure a settlement.
Ms. Stahl said Mr. Owens was “being asked to either not run pieces or to change parts of the stories, and he was standing up to it.”
Ms. McMahon resigned in May, saying she did not agree with her bosses on the way forward. However, Puck’s Dylan Byers reported she was fired due to executives’ overall displeasure with her tenure at CBS News. She directed a disastrous overhaul of the “CBS Evening News” which led to a ratings collapse, and her bosses believe she botched negotiations over the distribution rights of “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune.”
Ms. McMahon took the helm of CBS News and Stations in 2023, after two years in a co-executive role.
In July 2024, months before the Harris and Ta-Nehisi Coates interviews plunged CBS into chaos, the president of CBS News, Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, announced her resignation after just a year on the job amid allegations that she discriminated against white journalists.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
