D.C. Memo: FCC's Carr Warns Skydance About News Distortion Complaint Against CBS News
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CBS: Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr yesterday said he's "pretty confident" that the agency's review of the pending acquisition of CBS News parent Paramount Global will also include a review of a pending news distortion complaint about the pre-election 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. "There's also a news distortion complaint at the FCC still having to do with CBS, and CBS has that transaction before the FCC. I'm pretty confident that that news distortion complaint over the CBS 60 Minutes transcript is something that's likely to arise in the context of the FCC's review of that transaction," Carr told Fox News host Dana Perino. Skydance's $8.4 billion acquisition of Paramount Global can't close without FCC approval to transfer 28 full-power TV stations in 17 markets from the latter to the former. On Oct. 16, the Center for American Rights filed an FCC complaint saying that Paramount Global-owned WCBS-TV in New York City aired a snippet of the Harris interview on Oct. 5 on “Face the Nation” and again on Oct. 6 on "60 Minutes." "The two programs featured the same question asked to Vice President Kamala Harris, with two completely different answers," the complaint said. Carr urged CBS News to release the Harris transcript but it refused. President-elect Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against CBS included a demand to release the transcript.
At least one analyst has said that a recent and important TV station merger precedent established by FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel could become a concern. New Street Research policy advisor Blair Levin was referring to the FCC's review of Standard General's $8.6 billion application to buy 64 TV stations from TEGNA in 2023. On Feb. 24, 2023, the FCC’s Media Bureau sent the merger to an Administrative Law Judge for a hearing just two months before the deal's funding expired. Because ALJ reviews can take at least a year, the FCC effectively killed the deal without a vote by the five commissioners, infuriating Standard General's Managing Partner Soo Kim, who filed a federal racial discrimination suit against Rosenworcel and many others, including Kim’s business rival Byron Allen. "The TEGNA precedent that [FCC Chairwoman] Jessica [Rosenworcel] created is going to prove to be very problematic for people trying to get their transactions through," Levin said last Thursday at a forum hosted by Jenner & Block. "I'm also really wondering whether the Trump people are really going to press Brendan to put the kind of pressure on the news divisions of the broadcasters that they want him to do."
