The Trump White House’s war on public broadcasting shows no signs of slowing; at the same time Shari Redstone, head of Paramount Global, faces a career-defining lawsuit from the president which touches on similar themes of how the current administration is covered. Will Redstone protect her company’s legacy, or reach a settlement in order to fast-track the merger with Skydance Media? Kim Masters and Matt Belloni break it down.
Clearing the board? The Trump administration has fired three Biden appointees from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s board — including Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman. The decision has triggered a legal battle over whether the president has the authority to remove board members. “It's actually kind of a legal gray area,” Belloni notes. “The president does have the power to appoint the members of this board, but the bylaws do not say whether he has the power to remove them once they are there. And keep in mind, one of these three is a Trump appointee that was reappointed by Biden, so he sort of went after his own person there.”
Paramount concern? Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against Paramount Global looms as Shari Redstone attempts to close the company’s merger with Skydance Media. The Paramount board is weighing a financial settlement to make the lawsuit disappear, raising alarms in the CBS News newsroom. “Even a financial settlement will upset people at CBS News and generally in the media world,” warns Masters. “The idea that he would try to extract an apology or some kind of even promise not to cover him in a certain way… that has bloomed in the minds of people and made them even more anxious.”