Paramount might settle its Trump lawsuit so it can have a big tasty merger as a treat

There’s always something kind of interesting that happens when the media we consume, and the existences we’re forced to toil through, seem to line up; if we had our druthers, though, we might switch things up so that shows like Succession aren’t quite so frequently the art that our lives seem bound and determined to imitate.

This, per a new article in The Wall Street Journal, which suggests that high-level decision makers at Paramount have been considering backing down and settling on a current lawsuit between CBS News and incoming President Donald Trump because, wouldn’t you know it, incoming President Donald Trump is the guy who’s about to be deciding whether Paramount gets a tasty merger it’s been eyeing. The news comes amidst weeks of what feels like every major company capitulating to Trump’s truth-ambivalent, tolerance-intolerant ethos in one way or another, whether it’s Mark Zuckerberg deciding to blow off fact checkers at Facebook, or Disney cutting trans-positive stories from its content in both the lead-up to, and then the aftermath of, the 2024 election. Unlike when Trump won in 2016—which many of the big media companies seemed willing to treat as an aberration that could be resisted—this second administration seems to have lots of very large companies in a “Pwease don’t huwt us” kind of mood.

In Paramount’s case, that means worries about a review of its planned merger with Skydance Media, which is about to go up in front of the FCC. Trump’s new Chairman for the Commission, Brendan Carr, has apparently issued multiple warnings that Paramount should expect to get its nose bloodied as the deal comes in for review, with specific concerns being raised about CBS News’ impartiality. Which is also, basically, the subject of Trump’s lawsuit: He’s seeking $10 billion in damages on the assertion that the news organization re-cut a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris in order to make her look more appealing to viewers. The WSJ article is quick to note that no decisions have been made at Paramount yet, but that giving in is definitely being talked about as an option; shades of Disney recently opting to turn over and show its tummy by promising to donate several million dollars to Trump’s foundation to get out of its own ABC News lawsuit with him. (Compare that to 2016, when Time-Warner was facing CNN-based opposition for its own planned merger with AT&T at the time. The company weathered the storm of Trump’s ire, and ended up getting away with its own ungodly ritual of corporate synergy.) If we’re being honest, we’re not wild about either giant corporate mergers or Trump getting his ego boosted by “beating” an opponent, but it’s worth noting that the corporate winds seem to be blowing distinctly spineless as the inauguration looms.