The junior United States Senator from California has sent a formal letter to the Chairman of the FCC asking him to “clarify” the terms and conditions for approving the $8 billion merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global — “including any role played by President Trump or his associates in influencing the FCC’s actions.”
Brendan Carr has stated numerous times that the FCC’s look into potential “news distortion” claims at CBS News’ 60 Minutes is unrelated to a lawsuit filed by President Trump as a private citizen against Paramount Global, which was settled out of court just before the Commission gave its approval to the Skydance deal.
That approval was based on various conditions, and Adam Schiff is basing his inquiry on a narrative fueled by most Democrats on Capitol Hill. “The sequence of actions and statements leading up to and following the FCC’s merger approval, including Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Trump just days before the FCC issued its approval, raises significant questions and alarm that the FCC – an independent regulatory agency – has become a vehicle for President Trump to exact personal retribution and undermine the freedom of the press,” he writes.
Oversight by Congress is therefore imperative, Schiff adds, to assess the FCC’s actions and the circumstances surrounding the approval, which, if influenced by the president, “would set a dangerous precedent of political interference in and corruption of the FCC’s merger approval process.”
Schiff also took the opportunity remind Carr that the Commission has no authority “to dictate editorial content, punish perceived political bias, compel or silence specific viewpoints, or reward parties on the basis of efforts to garner favor with elected officials.”
Among the conditions Schiff takes aim at regarding the creation of Paramount Skydance are that the new company’s programming “embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum” and that Paramount Skydance moves to “eliminate invidious forms of DEI discrimination.”
In Schiff’s view, these statements “suggest an active effort by the FCC to shape the company’s future programming content in alignment with President Trump’s criticism of Paramount prior to the deal.”
President Trump’s “history of disparaging the press and undermining the protections afforded to them by the Constitution” was also noted as potentially influential in the FCC’s approval of the Paramount/Skydance deal.
QUESTIONS FOR CARR
After stating his case, Schiff explained to Carr that “in order to fulfill Congress’s constitutional obligation to perform oversight of regulatory agencies,” he wanted Carr to respond to a series of questions by Monday, August 25.
- What was the stated purpose of your July 15, 2025, meeting with David Ellison, and when was this meeting first proposed?
In this meeting, did any participants raise or otherwise discuss programming, editorial commitments, or content oversight? If so, please clarify in specific detail.
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Did you, the Commission, or FCC staff have any communications with Skydance or Paramount representatives concerning specific programming content decisions, including “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” or other shows, during the merger review process?
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What specific legal or regulatory authority did the FCC rely upon to condition merger approval on changes to editorial review practices at Skydance?
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Did you, the Commission, or FCC staff have any communications with the President or any of his associates, including any officials or employees of the White House, regarding the conditions or approval of the merger? If so, please name all individuals involved in those communications.
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Did the President or any of his associates, including any officials or employees of the White House, ever directly or indirectly communicate to you, the Commission, or FCC staff that the approval of the merger should be conditioned on any commitments from Paramount Global or Skydance Media related to programming content or media coverage?
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What First Amendment analysis did the Commission conduct prior to accepting Skydance’s commitment to achieve editorial “balance”?
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Did the FCC have any knowledge of, or communications with, the White House, Skydance, or Paramount concerning a potential $20 million public service announcement or advertising commitment connected to the settlement or merger approval?
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What safeguards does the FCC have in place to insulate the Commission from external political pressure in the review of future merger applications? What additional safeguards are needed?
Will Carr answer the questions? What does his have to say? Answers will likely come in seven days — even, perhaps, to the query regarding “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” which Paramount’s own top brass said was cancelled for reasons not related to the Skydance merger.
