How the Trump FCC justified requiring a “bias monitor” at CBS

Trump FCC claims there's precedent for CBS ombudsman, but it's a weak one.

The Federal Communications Commission's approval of CBS owner Paramount's $8 billion merger with Skydance came with a condition to install an ombudsman, which FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has described as a "bias monitor." It appears that the bias monitor will make sure the news company's reporting meets standards demanded by President Donald Trump.

"One of the things they're going to have to do is put an ombudsman in place for two years, so basically a bias monitor that will report directly to the president [of Paramount]," Carr told Newsmax on Thursday, right after the FCC announced its approval of the merger.

The Carr FCC claims there is precedent for such a bias monitor. But the precedent cited in last week's merger approval points to a very different case involving NBC and GE, one in which an ombudsman was used to protect NBC's editorial independence from interference by its new owner.

By contrast, it looks like Paramount is hiring a monitor to make sure that CBS reporting doesn't anger President Trump. Paramount obtained the FCC's merger approval only after reaching a $16 million settlement with Trump, who sued the company because he didn't like how CBS edited a pre-election interview with Kamala Harris. Trump claimed last week that Paramount is providing another $20 million worth of "advertising, PSAs, or similar programming," and called the deal "another in a long line of VICTORIES over the Fake News Media."

NBC/GE precedent was “viewpoint-neutral”

The FCC merger approval says that "to promote transparency and increased accountability, Skydance will have in place, for a period of at least two years, an ombudsman who reports to the President of New Paramount, and who will receive and evaluate any complaints of bias or other concerns involving CBS."

The Carr FCC apparently couldn't find a precedent that would closely match the ombudsman condition being imposed on Paramount. The above sentence has a footnote citing the FCC's January 2011 approval of Comcast's purchase of NBCUniversal, saying the Obama-era order found "such a mechanism effective in preventing editorial bias in the operation of the NBC broadcast network."

But in 2011, the FCC said the purpose of the ombudsman was to ensure that NBC's reporting would not be altered to fit the business interests of its owner. The FCC said at the time:

The Applicants state that, since GE's acquisition of NBC in 1986, GE has ensured that the content of NBC's news and public affairs programming is not influenced by the non-media interests of GE. Under this policy, which was noted with favor when the Commission approved GE's acquisition of NBC, NBC and its O&O [owned and operated] stations have been free to report about GE without interference or influence. In addition, GE appointed an ombudsman to further ensure that the policy of independence of NBCU's news operations would be maintained. Although the Applicants contend there is no legal requirement that they do so, they offer to maintain this policy and to retain the ombudsman position in the post-transaction entity to ensure the continued journalistic integrity and independence of NBCU's news operations.

The NBC/GE condition "was a viewpoint-neutral economic measure. It did not matter if the content had a pro or con position on any political or regulatory issue, but only whether it might have been broadcast to promote GE's pecuniary interests," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a longtime attorney and advocate who specializes in media and telecommunications policy. Schwartzman told Ars today that the NBC/GE condition cited by the Carr FCC is "very different from the viewpoint-based nature of the CBS condition."

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the commission's only Democrat, said the agency is "imposing never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment, in direct violation of the First Amendment and the law."

FCC: Trump lawsuit totally unrelated

The FCC's merger approval order said that "the now-settled lawsuit filed by President Donald J. Trump against Paramount and CBS News" is "unrelated to our review of the Transaction." But on Newsmax, Carr credited Trump with forcing changes at CBS and other media outlets.

"For years, people cowed down to the executives behind these companies based in Hollywood and New York, and they just accepted that these national broadcasters could dictate how people think about topics, that they could set the narrative for the country—and President Trump fundamentally rejected it," Carr said. "He smashed the facade that these are gatekeepers that can determine what people think. Everything we're seeing right now flows from that decision by President Trump, and he's winning. PBS has been defunded. NPR has been defunded. CBS is committing to restoring fact-based journalism... President Trump stood up to these legacy media gatekeepers and now their business models are falling apart."

Carr went on Fox News to discuss the CBS cancellation of Stephen Colbert's show, saying that "all of this is downstream of President Trump's decision to stand up, and he stood up for the American people because the American people do not trust these legacy gatekeepers anymore." Carr also wrote in a post on X, "The partisan left's ritualist wailing and gnashing of teeth over Colbert is quite revealing. They're acting like they're losing a loyal DNC spokesperson that was entitled to an exemption from the laws of economics."

Warren: “Bribery is illegal no matter who is president”

In a July 22 letter to Carr, Skydance said it "will ensure that CBS's reporting is fair, unbiased, and fact-based." With the installation of an ombudsman who will report to the company president, "New Paramount's executive leadership will carefully consider any such complaints in overseeing CBS's news programming," the letter said, also making reference to the previous case of an ombudsman at NBC. Skydance sent another letter about its elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, complying with Carr's demand to end such programs.

As Carr described it to Newsmax, the merging companies "made commitments to address bias and restore fact-based reporting. I think that's so important. Look, the American public simply do not trust these legacy media broadcasters, so if they stick with that commitment, you know we're sort of trust-but-verify mode, that'll be a big win."

The FCC's merger-approval order favorably cites comments from the Center for American Rights (CAR), a conservative group that filed a news distortion complaint against CBS over the Harris interview. The group "filed a supplemental brief, in which it discusses a report by Media Research Center (MRC) concerning negative media coverage of the Trump administration," the FCC said. "CAR asserts that the MRC report confirms that the news media generally, and CBS News in particular, is relentlessly slanted and biased. It concludes that Commission action is necessary to condition the Transaction on an end to this blatant bias."

Although the FCC insists that the Trump lawsuit wasn't relevant to its merger review, Carr previously made it clear that the news distortion complaint would be a factor in determining whether the merger would be approved. The FCC investigation into the Harris interview doesn't seem to have turned up much. CBS was accused of distorting the news by airing two different answers given by Harris to the same question, but the unedited transcript and camera feeds showed that the two clips simply contained two different sentences from the same answer.

Congressional Democrats said they will investigate the circumstances of the merger, including allegations that Skydance and Paramount bribed Trump to get it approved. "Bribery is illegal no matter who is president," Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said. "It sure looks like Skydance and Paramount paid $36 million to Donald Trump for this merger, and he's even bragged about this crooked-looking deal... this merger must be investigated for any criminal behavior. It's an open question whether the Trump administration's approval of this merger was the result of a bribe."