FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is unimpressed with CBS and it could be costly for the Tiffany Network, On The Money has learned.
At issue: A recent push by the woke TV network for the Federal Communications Commission and Carr to drop its investigation into alleged violations of the agency’s so-called “public interest rules” involving the controversial “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris.
The inquiry is a lingering sore spot for the network. Not only is it casting doubt on its internal ethics, namely that it unfairly edited the interview with the gaffe-prone Democratic presidential candidate to make her look good in the heat of the 2024 election. It is also a key element holding up FCC approval for CBS parent Paramount’s long-sought sale to independent movie studio Skydance.
In a recent filing, CBS said its release of the full transcript of the interview shows it did nothing wrong in the editing process and the case should be dismissed. Carr summarily rejected the proposal, saying his investigation will continue.
Privately, On The Money has learned, he had harsher words for network brass.
Carr believes CBS has done nothing to bring the commission’s investigation to an end, including a fix for the alleged pervasive bias in its programming, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
“The case isn’t close to being settled right now,” is how one FCC official familiar with Carr’s thinking put it to On The Money. “Now CBS could come in and make a big offer for remedies tomorrow, but that doesn’t seem like it’s on the table.”
An FCC spokesman didn’t return a request for comment. A CBS rep declined to comment.
Without settlement discussions, the FCC’s inquiry could drag on for weeks, possibly months further delaying the Paramount-Skydance deal.
As reported by On The Money, Skydance — which has yet to get its hooks into Paramount and could be battling a rival bid for the media conglomerate — is weighing possible remedies to push the approval process along, including an ombudsman to monitor CBS news content and make sure it’s free of bias.
Another major headache for Paramount is President Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against CBS over the Harris interview.
Why does any of this matter for the merger? The FCC is the primary regulator over the broadcast media business that airs programming over public airwaves, as opposed to cable. The agency can deny local broadcast licenses to companies and derail mergers when there is evidence that news content violates its public interest rules by containing obvious political bias.
CBS News has come under fire from conservatives for years over an allegedly left-wing slant in its programming.
Meanwhile, the “60 Minutes”-Harris interview has been steeped in controversy since it aired last Oct. 7. Conservative groups including the Center For American Rights, or CAR, soon discovered that CBS previously had aired a promo of the Harris interview where her answer to a question about the Middle East appeared markedly less coherent than what eventually ran on the program.
CAR filed a complaint with the FCC that triggered the investigation that is now postponing the Skydance-Paramount deal.
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