Paramount is learning the hard way why you don’t simply acquiesce to bullies.
Earlier this week, the company came to a preliminary settlement agreement with Donald Trump in a case where the President accused the company of deceptively editing a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris in 2024. That settlement (which has been described by some as “bribery” with intent to get Trump to green light Paramount’s attempted merger with Skydance Media) pays Trump $16 million. Trump’s legal team also claimed another condition of victory: It expects Paramount to allocate tens of millions of dollars to running “advertisements, public service announcements and other broadcasts” that support conservative causes, according to the Wall Street Journal.
That little detail of the agreement seems to have come out of nowhere. Paramount told WSJ the settlement “does not include PSAs or anything related to PSAs.” Gizmodo reached out to Paramount to confirm, and the company did not respond to a request for comment. There is no indication in any reporting that the pro-conservative media campaign was part of the discussion at any point, so like….what’s up with that?
Paramount has already done a considerable amount of kowtowing to the President, seemingly all as part of an effort to get regulatory approval to finish up its attempt to merge with Skydance. Earlier this year, CBS News president Wendy McMahon was forced out of her role at the company, allegedly due, in part, to the critical coverage of the Trump administration that her programs offered. Bill Owens, executive producer of “60 Minutes,” also stepped down this year, which seemed to come as parent company Paramount pushed for less coverage of Trump. The New York Times also reported that an executive at CBS considered burying a “60 Minutes” story on Trump’s mass firings at the IRS.
Meanwhile, the people who want the Paramount-Skydance merger to close were apparently in the room during the negotations of the Trump settlement. According to the Wall Street Journal, Paramount’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone was pushing the company’s board to reach an agreement with Trump, and Hollywood businessman Ari Emanuel—who happens to be close with Skydance Media CEO David Ellison—reached out to the board to encourage them to get a deal done, presumably so the merger can move forward.
And yet, here we are. A settlement has been reached, in theory, and Trump is still apparently pushing for more. Paramount should have learned from Columbia University—it gave Trump and his administration everything they demanded when they started putting pressure on the institution, just to receive follow-up threats like the potential removal of accreditation if the college doesn’t continue cooperating. You simply will not win by giving in.
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