Schiff highlights ‘troubling’ actions by FCC while demanding answers on role $16 million settlement paid to President Trump may have played in events preceding the approval of the merger on July 24
August 19, 2025 - Washington, D.C. – On Monday, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) demanded information on the 
events leading up to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) approval of a merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media, raising the alarm on potential political influence by the President and demanding the FCC detail the independent agency’s involvement in discussions of external litigation and programming decisions.
In a letter to FCC Chair Brendan Carr, Schiff outlined a series of concerns, including those related to the $16 million settlement paid by Paramount to President Trump weeks before the merger’s approval and subsequent meetings the FCC had following the settlement.
“The sequence of actions and statements leading up to and following the FCC’s merger approval, including Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Trump just days before the FCC issued its approval, raises significant questions and alarm that the FCC – an independent regulatory agency – has become a vehicle for President Trump to exact personal retribution and undermine the freedom of the press,” Senator Schiff wrote.
The letter demands details on FCC discussions related to editorial decisions and content oversight that took place in the days prior to the merger approval, citing President Trump’s repeated targeting of CBS News’s 60 Minutes programming and the abrupt cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert shortly after Colbert criticized the settlement of the President’s frivolous lawsuit.
Schiff was a guest on Colbert’s show the night his cancellation was made public, and shared concerns on the timing in the days that followed the announcement.
Schiff notes that the language included in the FCC announcement on the merger said approval was conditioned on Skydance’s “written commitments to ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum” to “eliminate invidious forms of DEI discrimination.”
These statements “suggest an active effort by the FCC to shape the company’s future programming content in alignment with President Trump’s criticism of Paramount prior to the deal, despite the FCC’s legal prohibition from doing so,” Schiff wrote.
The Senator requested answers from the FCC by August 25.
The full text of the letter can be found here and below.
I am writing to clarify the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) terms and conditions for approving the recent the $8 billion merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media, including any role played by President Trump or his associates in influencing the FCC’s actions. The sequence of actions and statements leading up to and following the FCC’s merger approval, including Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Trump just days before the FCC issued its approval, raises significant questions and alarm that the FCC – an independent regulatory agency – has become a vehicle for President Trump to exact personal retribution and undermine the freedom of the press. Oversight by Congress is therefore imperative to assess the FCC’s actions and the circumstances surrounding the approval, which, if influenced by President Trump, would set a dangerous precedent of political interference in and corruption of the FCC’s merger approval process.
As you are aware, the FCC’s authority – and its limits – are rooted in the First Amendment. The Communications Act of 1934 explicitly declares that nothing in the statute “shall be understood or construed to give the Commission the power of censorship over the [broadcast] communications or signals transmitted by any [broadcast] station, and no regulation or condition shall be promulgated or fixed by the Commission which shall interfere with the right of free speech by means of [over-the-air] broadcast communication.” As such, the FCC does not have the authority to dictate editorial content, punish perceived political bias, compel or silence specific viewpoints, or reward parties on the basis of efforts to garner favor with elected officials.
On July 1, 2025, Paramount announced it had agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit – which legal experts had deemed as “frivolous” – brought by the President over a “60 minutes” interview with then-candidate for President Kamala Harris aired by CBS News. Furthermore, President Trump has claimed that the deal includes “$20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, public service announcements, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars.”
You subsequently met privately with Skydance CEO David Ellison on July 15, 2025, just over a week before the FCC approved the merger between Paramount and Skydance on July 24, 2025. You noted in the Commission’s press release announcing the merger that this approval was conditioned on Skydance’s “written commitments to ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum” to “eliminate invidious forms of DEI discrimination” – statements that suggest an active effort by the FCC to shape the company’s future programming content in alignment with President Trump’s criticism of Paramount prior to the deal, despite the FCC’s legal prohibition from doing so. In response, Commissioner Anna M. Gomez stated in her dissent to the approval of the transfer of control of Paramount Global, “this once-independent FCC used its vast power to pressure Paramount to broker a private legal settlement and further erode press freedom.” Commissioner Gomez also expressed concern about the FCC imposing unprecedented controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment, which directly violate the First Amendment and the law.
The FCC’s recent actions are especially troubling considering President Trump’s history of disparaging the press and undermining the protections afforded to them by the Constitution. He has repeatedly accused news agencies of bias or unfair reporting when the coverage is unfavorable to him, most recently stating that licenses for networks that he views as “political pawns for the Democrat Party…could, and should be revoked!” In a blatant example of Trump’s political interference in the FCC’s regulator review, the President boasted on Truth Social about his “BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN” against Paramount just two days before the Commission’s approval of the company’s merger with Skydance.
The President went on to name several other respected media outlets, announcing he was putting them “ON NOTICE” and signaling his intent to continue weaponizing litigation and regulatory review as a tool to intimidate the press across the media landscape.12 In an early display of your willingness to abuse the FCC’s authority according to President Trump’s whims, you inappropriately reinstated complaints against networks regularly scrutinized by President Trump while leaving untouched the dismissal of a similar complaint involving Fox News.
In order to fulfill Congress’s constitutional obligation to perform oversight of regulatory agencies, I request responses to the following questions by August 25, 2025:
- What was the stated purpose of your July 15, 2025, meeting with David Ellison, and when was this meeting first proposed?
- In this meeting, did any participants raise or otherwise discuss programming, editorial commitments, or content oversight? If so, please clarify in specific detail.
- Did you, the Commission, or FCC staff have any communications with Skydance or Paramount representatives concerning specific programming content decisions, including “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” or other shows, during the merger review process?
- What specific legal or regulatory authority did the FCC rely upon to condition merger approval on changes to editorial review practices at Skydance?
- Did you, the Commission, or FCC staff have any communications with the President or any of his associates, including any officials or employees of the White House, regarding the conditions or approval of the merger?
- If so, please name all individuals involved in those communications.
- Did the President or any of his associates, including any officials or employees of the White House, ever directly or indirectly communicate to you, the Commission, or FCC staff that the approval of the merger should be conditioned on any commitments from Paramount Global or Skydance Media related to programming content or media coverage?
- What First Amendment analysis did the Commission conduct prior to accepting Skydance’s commitment to achieve editorial “balance”?
- Did the FCC have any knowledge of, or communications with, the White House, Skydance, or Paramount concerning a potential $20 million public service announcement or advertising commitment connected to the settlement or merger approval?
- What safeguards does the FCC have in place to insulate the Commission from external political pressure in the review of future merger applications? What additional safeguards are needed?
I look forward to reviewing your responses.
Source: Senator Adam Schiff
