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Business Insider
11 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Trump's FCC approves Skydance-Paramount merger — with conditions about the company's content
The Federal Communications Commission's approval of the merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global comes with a lot of conditions on the content the company can produce across its programming, which includes CBS and Nickelodeon. The FCC said in a statement Thursday that it approved Skydance's $8 billion acquisition of the media giant. Brendan Carr, chairman of the FCC, said that Americans "no longer trust the legacy national news media" and that Skydance had agreed to make "significant changes" at CBS. "In particular, Skydance has made written commitments to ensure that the new company's programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum," Carr said in a statement. "Today's decision also marks another step forward in the FCC's efforts to eliminate invidious forms of DEI discrimination," he added. As part of its commitment to "unbiased journalism," Skydance has agreed to have an ombudsman for at least two years who will report to the new company's president and evaluate complaints of bias. Specifics about how the ombudsman would be chosen or operate were not immediately clear, and the FCC did not immediately respond to a request for more information. Skydance did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. The approval of the merger comes weeks after Paramount settled a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump. Trump sued the company over an interview with Kamala Harris that aired on "60 Minutes," accusing CBS of "deceptive editing." Paramount said on July 2 that it agreed to pay $16 million to settle the lawsuit, which included funds to go toward Trump's future presidential library. The settlement did not include an apology. Critics, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, accused Paramount of folding to Trump in order to get approval for the merger, and media insiders told Business Insider at the time that they believed the settlement would help the company get the merger approved. On July 7, Paramount Global's board approved the merger with Skydance, creating "New Paramount" and ending a tumultuous dealmaking process. The approval also came a week after CBS canceled "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert." Lawmakers, including Warren and Sen. Adam Schiff, said the public deserved answers about whether it was politically motivated. CBS said the cancellation was "purely a financial decision."
WIRED
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- WIRED
Paramount Has a $1.5 Billion 'South Park' Problem
Jul 24, 2025 7:13 PM The White House says the show is 'fourth-rate' after it showed Trump with 'tiny' genitals. The controversy comes just as the FCC has greenlit Paramount's merger with Skydance and promised to end DEI. Still from South Park. Photograph: Comedy Central/Everett Collection In an interview with Vanity Fair in September, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone all but swore off satirizing Donald Trump, noting 'I don't know what more we could possibly say.' We found out what more they could say yesterday, in brutal fashion. The same day Paramount announced a five-year streaming deal with South Park , including 50 new episodes, the show's 27th season premiere mercilessly mocked both president Trump and the network for capitulating to his demands, settling with him over the 60 Minutes lawsuit, and canceling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert . The episode, called 'Sermon on the Mount,' did not hold back on crass jokes aimed at Trump, showing him with a 'teeny tiny' penis both in animation and as a deepfake, and portraying him as Satan's lover in a style reminiscent of the gay Saddam Hussein character from the 1999 movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The episode aired as Paramount is set to merge with media company Skydance. Politicians and media personalities alike are speculating that its eagerness to keep Trump happy is motivated by gaining the US Federal Communications Commission's approval of the deal, which was made official Thursday evening. Before being fired, Colbert, a late-night ratings leader, described Paramount's $16-million settlement with Trump as a 'big fat bribe' and on Monday's show he said 'the gloves are off' while telling the president 'go fuck yourself.' Between Colbert's remaining season, network colleague Jon Stewart's scathing indictment of both Paramount and CBS, the new South Park deal, and a transformative merger, the company appears to be looking at a period where some of its biggest stars are openly hostile to both it and the president. 'I welcome Skydance's commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network,' FCC Chairman Brendan Carr—who wrote Project 2025's chapter on the telecommunications agency—reportedly said in a statement Thursday supporting the merger. 'Today's decision also marks another step forward in the FCC's efforts to eliminate invidious forms of DEI.' Paramount did not respond to WIRED's requests for comment. In a statement emailed to WIRED, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers derided South Park as irrelevant and derided 'left' fans who liked the season opener. 'The Left's hypocrisy truly has no end—for years they have come after South Park for what they labeled as 'offense' [sic] content, but suddenly they are praising the show. Just like the creators of South Park , the Left has no authentic or original content, which is why their popularity continues to hit record lows,' she says. 'This show hasn't been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention. President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country's history—and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump's hot streak.' Paramount's press release announcing the South Park deal—reported to be worth $1.5 billion—describes the show as 'one of the most valuable TV franchises in the world.' It also praises Parker and Stone as 'fearless' and 'boundary-pushing.' But the roasting of Trump in 'Sermon on the Mount' was also something else: mean. Deeply, devastatingly mean. After being accused by the Canadian Prime Minister of being akin to a 'dictator from the Middle East,' Trump lashes out at a White House artist for painting him with a small penis. The small dick theme is repeated throughout the episode, with numerous portraits of him humping things and animals and Satan telling him, 'I can't even see anything, it's so small.' Trump petulantly threatens to sue him, and the artist, and Jesus, and the entire town—basically anyone who pisses him off. It's also implied that he's on the Epstein list. 'Do you really want to end up like Colbert?' Jesus asks the townspeople, who are pushing back against forced Christianity in their kids' school. He calls out Paramount by name, saying, 'we're going to get canceled, you idiots.' The town strikes a deal with the president, forcing them to do pro-Trump messaging—a nod to Trump's claim on Truth Social that Paramount's 'new owners' have agreed to give him $20 million in advertising and public service announcements in addition to the settlement. (Paramount told Deadline the settlement doesn't include PSAs and said it 'has no knowledge of any promises or commitments made to President Trump other than those set forth in the settlement proposed by the mediator and accepted by the parties.') The show is then interrupted by a PSA, where a deepfake Trump stumbles around naked through the desert; this time, his genitals have a pair of googly eyes attached. 'Trump: his penis is teeny, tiny. But his love for us is large,' a narrator says. The ad ends with 'He Gets Us. All Of Us'—'He Gets Us' is also the slogan used for a Christian ad campaign. You can argue that portraying Trump as a narcissistic manchild and focusing so heavily on his appearance is low-brow. But Nick Marx, an associate professor of film and media studies at Colorado State University, says it's also a refreshing change from the defiant messaging of Colbert and others. 'It's fucking funny as hell that they seek to sexually humiliate Trump,' he claims, saying it's an effective troll of what he believes to be the president's 'vanity and insecurity.' 'I think that is the card to play … And I am frustrated that more of the comedians that I love on the left haven't leaned into that really harsh attack of him.' Critics of the episode on X issued complaints that 'the left took over south park,' and 'this show is for libtards' while others outright expressed fear that Trump will get the show canceled, saying'South Park was good while it lasted.' But making small dick jokes isn't woke—it's exactly that type of humor, along with an affinity for saying the r-word and racial and homophobic slurs that helped cultivate South Park 's right-wing audience. Marx thinks that's a good thing for liberals. 'Right-wing humorists, the Joe Rogans and Andrew Schulzes of the world, they're the ones occupying this offensive free speech space. And so anything that the left can do to reclaim artists like Parker and Stone would be a benefit to them.' In a meeting Thursday, the FCC's Carr said he's 'not a ' South Park ' watcher,' NBC News reports. He also said Trump is against 'a handful of national programmers' who 'control and dictate to the American what the narrative is, what they can say, what they can think.' But, while many of his attacks have focused on news organizations themselves—ABC, CBS, NPR, even the Wall Street Journal—censoring cherished entertainers could rile up members of the public who frankly may not care that much about the plight of journalists. That's something that Paramount too, has to contend with now. 'They just inked this $1.5 billion deal that, to me, is a gesture of full and unequivocal support from Paramount,' Marx says. 'The syndication and streaming licenses that South Park draws are worth much, much more than they've been paying Parker and Stone over the years.' He says he wouldn't be surprised if Parker and Stone got away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. But, as the episode itself indicated, Trump has been relentless with his lawsuit targets and openly bragged about getting Colbert fired and keeping the media in line. Michael Sozan, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says he could absolutely see Paramount trying to tone down South Park 's content, considering that they settled on 'the flimsiest of lawsuits,' predicated on the claim that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris to make it more flattering to her. But he said doing so could 'wake up a sleeping giant': the public. The streamer has also promised Trump it will cancel its DEI initiatives. 'A lot of American people are starting to be more and more aware of how Trump is trying to censor reporters, but now also just entertainment shows that he disagrees with it. That is something that authoritarians do,' he says. People could respond with outrage or boycotts. But he cautions that's not Paramount's only problem, as it clinches the $8 billion Skydance merger. Already Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have written a letter to Skydance CEO David Ellison, seeking answers about the 'secret side deal with President Trump,' that allegedly offered him future PSAs. Trump has called Ellison's father, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, a 'friend.' California officials are also looking into whether the company engaged in bribery related to the deal, as Semafor reported. 'If there's a Democratic administration and a Democratic Department of Justice starting three years from now, or Democratic House or Senate, Paramount also has opened itself up to the possibility of lots of investigations,' Sozan says. It's fascinating that South Park and late-night comics are issuing some of the harshest rebukes of Trump, though Sozan says satire—and joy—are considered by scholars to be an effective tool against authoritarians who 'want to keep people depressed and in line.' He thinks the backlash over Paramount's mounting controversies could be a genuine 'cultural flashpoint.' So far, there's no indication that Paramount plans to censor South Park . Then again, the Skydance merger has only just been greenlit. At the end of the premiere, Cartman and Butters, seemingly stand-ins for Parker and Stone, try to kill themselves because Cartman is depressed that 'woke is dead' and he has nothing to make fun of anymore. 'I think I might be going,' Butters says. 'Yep, sweet death is about to come. I love you man,' Cartman replies. For fans of the show—and free speech in general—let's hope that's not true. But just in case, you should probably watch that episode now.
Los Angeles Times
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘South Park' season opener puts Trump in bed with Satan and has Paramount on its knees
'South Park' wasted no time putting its very existence on the line, again. On Wednesday, the Comedy Central series kicked off its 27th season with a searing indictment of President Trump and its network's parent company, Paramount. Paramount recently paid the president $16 million toward his future library rather than fighting a lawsuit Trump brought against '60 Minutes' (Paramount is also a parent company of CBS). It was also announced last week that 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,' which airs on Paramount-owned CBS, was being canceled. Colbert is one of the most prominent political satirists in America, and from his pulpit has been a relentless critic of MAGA policy and Trump. Like the payout over the '60 Minutes' lawsuit, Colbert's cancellation comes just as Paramount is seeking federal approval of an $8-billion merger with Skydance Media. 'South Park' couldn't have returned at a better time. The episode, titled 'Sermon on the Mount,' opens with Cartman discovering his favorite radio station, NPR, has been canceled. Making fun of its wokeness was part of his identity, and now he's lost and angry. 'The government can't cancel a show!' he laments before dropping a self-referential joke about 'South Park's' own vulnerability. 'I mean, what show are they going to cancel next?' Paramount might be tempted to cancel 'South Park' after Wednesday night's damning premiere, when the show repeatedly lampooned the company's costly capitulation to Trump. And Paramount earlier this week announced a $1.5 billion deal with 'South Park' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for 14 new movies, six more seasons and streaming rights on Paramount+ for the next five years. The new season continues to plumb the horrifying depths of 2025 when Cartman also finds that his school is demanding students accept the presence of Jesus, literally. Cartman is called to the principal's office for not letting Jesus sit with his group in the cafeteria at lunch, even though there were no empty seats. There's always room for the Lord, he's told. The townspeople become angry that they voted in a guy who they thought would target other people — like immigrants. They don't want religion forced on their kids at school, but newscasts make their plight seem hopeless. 'More protests today as the president pushes harder for Christianity in our schools. The president stated earlier today that the spirit of Jesus is important to our country and he will sue anyone who doesn't agree with him.' The truly wicked satire begins when they cut to Trump at the White House. He's the only character whose head is an actual photo rather than a drawing, and the president's image is deftly manipulated to reflect the many faces of the real man: pouting, grimacing, smiling, leering and pouting, again. He repeatedly demands that everyone relax while he threatens to destroy them. He argues with Canada's prime minister over tariffs ('You don't want me to bomb you like I did Iraq,' says Trump. 'I thought you just bombed Iran,' the PM replies. 'Iran. Iraq. What the hell's the difference?'). Trump also lies naked in bed with Satan, revealing his minuscule manhood. Disgusted, the devil rebuffs the president's advances and says, 'I can't even see anything, it's so small.' Satan is also perturbed that some rando on Insta keeps commenting about sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's client list. 'Epstein, are we still talking about that?' Trump says. 'Are you on the list or not?' Satan asks. 'It's weird that when it comes up you just keep telling everyone to relax.' Then we jump to a segment of '60 Minutes' where the beleaguered show's hosts mumble in terror for fear of another lawsuit as the show's signature stopwatch sound is set to the image of a ticking time bomb. They refer to the president as 'a great man' who 'is probably watching' before cutting to their reporter who is covering the protests against Trump in South Park, Colorado. Jesus touches down to address his flock under the guise of fulfilling Trump's wish to bring Christianity back into public schools. But he's really there to warn the crowd, and does so in a whisper. 'I didn't want to come back and be in the school, but I had to because it was part of a lawsuit and the agreement with Paramount.' 'The president's suing you?' a protester asks. Jesus, through clenched teeth, explains: 'The guy can do what he wants now that someone backed down. ... You guys see what's happened to CBS? Well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount! You really want to end up like Colbert? … All of you, shut the f— up or South Park is over!' The town ends up being sued by Trump, and they, like Paramount, cave. They pay him off, but are also required to sing his praises as part of the settlement. The episode ends with a pro-Trump ad by the town. It's a realistic deepfake video of the president trekking through the desert heat in a show of loyalty to his supporters. He strips naked and once again we're reminded that it's not just his hands that are small. That wail you just heard? It's coming from the White House. A new lawsuit is born.
New York Post
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Stephen Colbert's ‘Late Show' was haven for left-wing politicians and journalists
'The Late Show' wasn't just a platform for Democrats under Stephen Colbert's tenure, it was also one for left-wing journalists and hosts. Fox News Digital has counted at least 200 episodes of 'The Late Show' that featured members of the liberal media. The far-left politics of 'The Late Show' have been facing scrutiny after CBS announced last week that it was pulling the plug on Colbert's program, which will officially wrap up in May 2026. According to IMDB search results, CNN anchor and '60 Minutes' correspondent Anderson Cooper holds the record with 20 formal guest appearances on 'The Late Show.' Cooper showed his support for Colbert on Monday in a cameo appearance as part of an audience gag mocking CBS parent company Paramount and President Donald Trump. Other journalists and hosts who were top 'Late Show' guests included CNN anchor Jake Tapper, with 12 appearances, the 'Pod Save America' Obama bros with 11, MSNBC's Chris Hayes with 10 and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and 'The View' co-host Whoopi Goldberg with eight apiece, per IMDB. Colbert frequently rolled out the red carpet for his CBS colleagues in the news division for cross-promotion. John Dickerson has tallied 19 appearances, Gayle King notched 14, Norah O'Donnell has six, and Margaret Brennan has three. 3 Fox News Digital reports that 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' featured left-wing journalists as formal guests for at least 200 episodes. Scott Kowalchyk/CBS Several times, the CBS hosts made joint appearances, like King with her 'CBS Morning' colleagues. Similarly, John Heilemann and Alex Wagner, prominent MSNBC analysts, both made at least ten appearances, thanks in part to their stints hosting the political docuseries 'The Circus' that aired on Showtime, a sister network under the Paramount umbrella. The late-night CBS host welcomed liberal journalists from rival broadcast networks like ABC's George Stephanopoulos and Jonathan Karl as well as NBC's Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin and Jacob Soboroff. Hosts on CNN and MSNBC, which both leaned into anti-Trump politics throughout Colbert's run, were regulars at the Ed Sullivan Theater. 3 CBS announced last week that 'The Late Show' will end in May 2026. CBS via Getty Images 'Morning Joe' co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have made four joint appearances, as did Joy Reid before her firing from MSNBC earlier this year. Nicolle Wallace, Jen Psaki and Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC and Christiane Amanpour of CNN International have each made three appearances. Other CNN and MSNBC stars, past and present, who've joined Colbert over the years include Brian Stelter, Jim Acosta, Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, Katy Tur, Ari Melber, Kaitlan Collins, Abby Philip, Laura Coates, Van Jones, Donny Deutsch, Audie Cornish, Jim Sciutto and Chris Matthews. Other notable media figures that have also made 'Late Show' appearances over the years include Katie Couric, Bob Costa, Ana Navarro, Maggie Haberman, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Wesley Lowery, Scott Pelley, Lesley Stahl, Ezra Klein, Susan Glasser, April Ryan, Jorge Ramos, John Avlon, Margaret Hoover, Ronan Farrow, Michael Wolff, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. 3 IMDB shows that CNN anchor and '60 Minutes' correspondent Anderson Cooper has the most formal guest appearances on the show during Colbert's tenure as host, making a total of 20 appearances. CBS via Getty Images Liberals have been outraged over Colbert's shocking cancellation. Many of them, including Jon Stewart, believe the move was meant to kowtow to Trump and not because of the show's finances as CBS claimed. But Colbert's show was reportedly losing CBS $40 million a year and that it had been running on a whopping $100 million budget per season. While the liberal late-night hosts are struggling, Fox News Channel's 'Gutfeld!' averaged 3.1 million viewers through July 20, compared to 1.9 million for CBS' outgoing 'Late Show.' During that same time period, ABC's 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' averaged 1.5 million, NBC's 'The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon' averaged 1.1 million, and NBC's 'Late Night with Seth Meyers' managed 751,000. When it comes to the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults aged 25-54, 'Gutfeld!' averaged 398,000 of the viewers most coveted by advertisers, compared to 288,000 for Colbert.
New York Times
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Paramount Settled With Trump. Its Shows Are Skewering Him.
The creators of 'South Park' aren't holding back. Nor are Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. Just a few weeks after Paramount settled a lawsuit with President Trump, and less than a week after the company made the abrupt decision to cancel 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,' some of the company's marquee names have been using their Paramount platforms to attack their corporate bosses — as well as the president. In the season premiere of the animated Comedy Central franchise 'South Park' on Wednesday night, a character portraying Jesus Christ visited the show's elementary school before revealing why he was really there: Mr. Trump had sent him 'because it was part of a lawsuit and the agreement with Paramount.' 'You guys saw what happened to CBS?' the character said. 'Well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount! You really want to end up like Colbert? You guys got to stop being stupid. Just shut up, or we're going to get canceled, you idiots!' The episode also featured various terrified correspondents at CBS's '60 Minutes,' whose interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris was at the center of Mr. Trump's suit. The correspondents on 'South Park' praised Mr. Trump. Making the episode more remarkable was that it aired just hours after Paramount and Comedy Central announced a new deal with Park County, the production studio run by the creators of 'South Park,' Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The deal will pay Park County at least $1.25 billion over five years, two people with knowledge of the arrangement said. Wednesday's 22-minute 'South Park' episode also included withering criticisms of the president. In one scene, Mr. Trump becomes enraged with a painter after checking on the progress of a nude portrait of himself. Later, he is shown in bed with Satan discussing Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced former financier. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
