The head of entertainment behemoth Skydance is vowing to ensure the company presides over “unbiased journalism” and embraces a “variety of viewpoints,” ahead of its acquisition of fellow media giant Paramount Global.
During a recent meeting with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr, David Ellison — Skydance’s top executive and the son of billionaire tech mogul Larry Ellison — the two discussed the entertainment company’s “commitment to unbiased journalism and its embrace of diverse viewpoints, principles that will ensure CBS’s editorial decision-making reflects the varied ideological perspectives of American viewers,” according to a regulatory filing.
Ellison also told Carr the company is committed to “promoting non-discrimination and equal employment opportunity,” in the workplace. The FCC chief has threatened to investigate a number of major media companies over their diversity initiatives and hiring practices.
The promises come as Paramount has come under intense scrutiny over recent decisions to pay $16 million to President Trump’s foundation to settle a lawsuit he brought against CBS last year and the network’s move to cancel “Late Night” hosted with frequent Trump-critic Stephen Colbert.
Carr, a close ally of the president and critic of mainstream news outlets, has himself mocked the reaction Colbert’s cancelation has caused among Democrats. He also suggested Trump’s lawsuit against Paramount could have stopped the progress of the acquisition by Skydance, which his agency must approve by the fall.
Larry Ellison, who personally put up $7 billion for the Paramount deal, is a business ally of the president and is the founder of Oracle, the cloud computing provider for TikTok in the U.S., a company for which the president is currently trying to find an American buyer.
The president has ridiculed CBS News and other mainstream news outlets over its coverage of him, and has in the past threatened to have Carr scrutinize their broadcast licenses.
