FCC to Appoint a Babysitter to Make Sure CBS Isn't Anti-Trump

The Federal Communications Commission finally approved an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance on Thursday after several changes at CBS that were widely seen as efforts to placate President Donald Trump. Part of the deal will apparently require an ombudsman to check the media company’s supposed political biases. And FCC commissioner Brendan Carr has been doing the rounds to brag about how he’s getting people on TV to be nicer to the MAGA movement.

“They made commitments to address bias and restore fact-based reporting. I think that’s so important,” Carr told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly on his show Thursday night. “I mean, look, the American public simply do not trust these legacy media broadcasters. And so, if they stick with that commitment, you know, we’re sort of trust-but-verify mode, that’ll be a big win.”

Carr went on to explain that CBS had committed to “ending invidious forms of DEI,” a pretext Trump has used to purge the federal government of anyone who isn’t white and male in leadership positions. Kelly said that he had heard the media company was going to do something “different” with 60 Minutes, claiming that a shift to “fact-based” reporting would be a “cultural shock” to CBS.

“One of the things they’re going to have to do is put in an ombudsman in place for two years,” Carr said. “So basically a bias monitor that will report directly to the President. So that’s something that’s significant that we’re going to see happening as well.”

Before the second Trump era, it would’ve been seen as a ridiculous violation of the First Amendment to have some kind of monitor making sure the media was being nice to the president. And to have that monitor reporting directly to the most powerful person in the country makes the entire situation that much worse.

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Trump sued CBS News over a “60 Minutes” interview with the Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris. Trump falsely claimed the interview had been deceptively edited, though legal experts claimed the lawsuit was ridiculous and should’ve been laughed out of court. Instead, Paramount, which owns CBS News, decided to settle with Trump for $16 million, a move characterized by late-night host Stephen Colbert as a “big fat bribe.” CBS announced Colbert’s show would be cancelled just a couple of days after he levied the criticism in a move that Trump celebrated.

Kelly asked Carr if TV networks are allowed to be “woke” if they wanted to be, and Carr didn’t answer the question, instead pivoting to insist CBS was simply making a business decision by cancelling Colbert. Kelly said that Colbert had “insulted President Trump in an unfunny manner,” while acknowledging that the comedian had also insulted his own employers, something Kelly suggested was beyond the pale, saying that he was “biting the hand that feeds” him.

“You know, we had people like Johnny Carson and Jay Leno and Letterman, they were given a real big platform to succeed,” Carr said, ignoring the fact that every late-night show in history has made fun of the sitting president incessantly.

“And now he’s, you know, staring irrelevance in the face and clearly he’s not taking it very well,” Carr continued about Colbert, “But again, this is a business decision for these companies to make and they’ve apparently made the decision that no, this really isn’t working out for them.”

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Colbert was number one in his time slot, but late-night shows have indeed faced significant headwinds as advertisers flee traditional broadcast media. Letterman’s ratings in the 1990s were roughly equivalent to Colbert’s ratings today, something that was noted on CNBC Friday morning, where Carr continued his media tour.

Carr was asked by CNBC about comments from the sole Democrat remaining on the FCC commission, Anna Gomez, who called the merger approval a “cowardly capitulation to this Administration.” Carr was asked if there was a quid pro quo, something he didn’t directly address.

“Now listen, if you step back, what’s happening here is I think President Trump is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape,” Carr said without answering the question. “And the way he’s doing that is when he ran for election, he ran directly at these legacy broadcast media outlets, ABC, NBC, CBS. For years, government officials just allowed those entities with execs sitting in Hollywood and New York to dictate the political narrative.”

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After Carr made numerous references to Colbert, CNBC host Carl Quintanilla pointed out that Colbert is a comedian, not a journalist.

“Well, I think what’s interesting about all of this is these late-night shows, not just the Late Night show, but across the board, they have such a storied history,” Carr said. “And it’s sad to see what’s happening to Colbert. They obviously can’t get it done. They’re not making money over there.”

“But I think they need a course correction,” Carr continued. “And frankly, I think the media industry across this country needs a course correction. Again, the American people simply do not trust the mainstream media.”

Gizmodo reached out to CBS and the FCC for comment, and we will update this piece when we receive a reply.

It couldn’t be clearer that the FCC is a political arm of the Trump regime, dictating what’s allowed to be discussed on TV. And Americans will find out soon enough what that looks like in practice, as Trump will now appear to have veto power over what gets broadcast on CBS.