Incoming CBS Boss Jeff Shell Pressuring Underlings To Settle With Trump, Trample Journalistic Freedom, And Kiss Authoritarian Ass

Journalism

from the our-big-shitty-merger-won't-approve-itself dept

Last October, Donald Trump sued CBS claiming (falsely) that a “60 Minutes” interview of Kamala Harris had been “deceitfully edited” to her benefit (they simply shortened some of her answers for brevity, as news outlets often do). As Mike explored, the lawsuit tramples the First Amendment and editorial discretion.

At the same time, Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr has been abusing government authority to leverage approval of Paramount (CBS)’s planned $8 billion merger with Skydance to bully the company into even greater feckless compliance.

After some early indications that CBS was poised to settle the lawsuit, we noted last week that there were some signs of life from CBS lawyers, who began taking aim at obvious Trump judge shopping. They also were clearly starting to fling various legal arguments against the wall, including (pretty shaky) claims that Trumplings can’t sue CBS because it violates the company’s binding arbitration fine print.

But this week Oliver Darcy (whose media newsletter is worth a follow) revealed that incoming CBS President Jeff Shell has been applying relentless pressure on company underlings to settle with King Donald, release the full “60 Minutes” transcript, and trample all over the firewall between management and editorial:

“Shell requested that McMahon and Owens comply with Trump’s demand and release the transcript, according to people familiar with the matter. Shell’s involvement in the editorial matter immediately set off alarm bells. McMahon and Owens later told associates they were disturbed that Shell was inserting himself into the newsroom’s decision-making, given that Paramount’s merger with Skydance has yet to close and that corporate interference in journalistic matters is traditionally anathema. Even more troubling, Shell seemed to believe CBS News should have simply appeased Trump, despite the dangerous precedent it would set.”

Shell, who was fired by Comcast NBC Universal after accusations of inappropriate workplace behavior, isn’t even boss yet. But he’s poised to be the top dog of the consolidated CBS/Paramount/Skydance merger once Trump Incorporated gives its blessing to the deal, something that understandably didn’t please womens’ rights advocates.

Media executives were broadly bullish on Trump because they knew that, in addition to a huge tax cut for doing nothing, he’d rubber stamp all manner of potentially problematic consolidation in an already highly-consolidated media industry.

Darcy notes that CBS News chief Wendy McMahon and “60 Minutes” boss Bill Owens apparently initially convinced Shell that trampling journalistic integrity to get a big shitty merger approved wasn’t a good look, but Darcy notes that pressure by Shell has only ramped up in the months since.

The great irony in all of this is that like so many media giants, CBS had already responded to authoritarianism by making its journalism gentler to Republican ideology years earlier, in response to the all-pervasive lie that the corporatist, center-right U.S. press has a rampant “liberal bias.”

A Trump rejection of the merger might not be good for Shell’s wallet, but it would likely be inadvertently of benefit to the public. Recent large U.S. media mergers (like the AT&T–>Time Warner–>Discovery super-union) have been cataclysmic messes, doing little more than generating massive layoffs, increasing consumer prices, and generally resulting in undeniably shittier products overall.

Filed Under: 60 minutes, authoritarian bullshit, brendan carr, consolidation, enshittification, first amendment, free speech, jeff shell, journalism, layoffs, mergers
Companies: cbs, paramount, skydance