Donald Trump heaped praise on the new owner of CBS, saying Paramount chief executive David Ellison is a “great man” whom he knows “very well,” adding that Ellison is “going to do the right thing” with the network.
The president’s Friday remarks come a day after House Democrats launched an investigation into the politically fraught $8 billion merger between Paramount and Ellison’s Skydance, which was approved by the Trump administration shortly after the president extracted a $16 million settlement in his “meritless” lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.
Speaking to reporters on Friday morning following the FBI raiding the home of his former national security adviser-turned-critic John Bolton, which Trump insisted he knew “nothing about” beforehand, the president turned his attention to boasting about his federal takeover of Washington, D.C.
In typical Trumpian fashion, the president went on a tangent about the “fake news” not giving him credit for deploying military troops on the streets of the nation’s capital, which he falsely claimed had a 90 percent approval rating. In reality, the vast majority of D.C. residents oppose the move and feel it makes them less safe.
After mocking MSNBC’s upcoming name change, claiming it was “because they‘re ashamed of it and they‘re disassociating it from NBC, which is also fake news,” Trump then brought up CBS and Ellison – and had nothing but good things to say.
“I think the news is getting better. They‘re learning that they have no credibility,” he declared. “CBS was just sold to a great person that I know very well.”
Trump continued: “A great man. He actually just bought CBS. And I think he‘s going to do the right thing with it.”
Ellison is the son of close Trump ally and megadonor Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder who invested billions of dollars in David Ellison’s Skydance merger with Paramount. Weeks before the Federal Communications Commission – led by Trump’s hand-picked chairman Brendan Carr – finally approved the Skydance-Paramount deal, Trump similarly sang the younger Ellison’s praises.
“Ellison’s great,” the president told reporters in mid-June. “He’ll do a great job with it.”
Earlier this week, the ranking members of the House Judiciary and Energy and Commerce committees sent Ellison a letter demanding documents and correspondence related to the administration’s approval process of the Paramount merger, which officially closed on August 7.
Specifically, the two Democratic congressmen are seeking answers surrounding not only the settlement of the Trump lawsuit, which has sparked accusations of bribery from lawmakers and free press organizations, but also the president’s claim that he reached a “side deal” with Ellison.
Shortly after the previous Paramount leadership announced it was paying Trump $16 million to settle the 60 Minutes complaint, Trump boasted that Ellison had agreed to air up to $20 million of pro-Trump advertisements and programming on CBS once the merger went through. While the old Paramount denied any knowledge of any secret agreement, Ellison has remained mum on the matter.
“This offer was necessarily contingent on the FCC approving the deal and does not appear to present any legitimate value to the public, only to President Trump,” Reps. Frank Pallone and Jamie Raskin wrote Ellison this week. “Therefore, this appears to be an offer of payment and benefits to a government official designed to achieve a specific outcome from the government — in other words, a bribe.”
Additionally, the Democrats are inquiring about Paramount’s decision to cancel the top-rated late-night show hosted by outspoken Trump critic Stephen Colbert just days before the merger was approved, as well as Skydance’s assurance to the FCC that it would review “complaints of bias” at CBS News and eliminate all diversity hiring practices. Both Trump and Carr publicly celebrated Colbert’s cancellation.
On top of that, Raskin and Pallone noted that during the negotiations with Trump to settle the lawsuit, which CBS lawyers said was “without merit” and legal experts described as frivolous, the executive producer of 60 Minutes and CBS News chief Wendy McMahon both resigned in protest.
“Two wrongs do not make a right—illegitimate demands from the FCC or the Administration do not absolve your company from wrongdoing,” the letter to Ellison stated. “If Skydance offered a side deal of up to $20 million worth of advertisement or programming to President Trump in order to receive regulatory approval for the merger with Paramount, these actions would run afoul of federal and state anti-bribery statutes.”
The lawmakers added: “Similarly, if Paramount forced out CBS’s longtime leaders, spent $16 million to settle a sham lawsuit with President Trump, or cancelled a highly popular comedy show that President Trump dislikes in order to curry favor with the Administration and to receive regulatory approval for the merger with Skydance, these actions would likely further embolden President Trump to use lawsuits and regulatory authority to attack media organizations that he finds objectionable in order to silence them.”
In the meantime, it appears that Ellison and his senior leadership are preparing to enact painful cuts to the news network. Puck’s Dylan Byers reported this week that Paramount sources had told him CBS News was losing around $50 million a year, a claim a CBS News spokesperson pushed back hard against, saying the news division is “currently profitable.”
Still, based on the Byers item, it appears that Ellison and Paramount president Jeff Shell are laying the groundwork to make sweeping layoffs at CBS News – and soon. “The stage has been set for a round of painful cost-cutting,” Status News’ Oliver Darcy noted. “In other words, the disputed number may ultimately be less important than the larger narrative it helps justify: CBS News is about to face some painful budget cuts.”
