Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr insisted today that its review of the proposed merger of Paramount Global with Skydance is not connected to a lawsuit by President Donald Trump against CBS and 60 Minutes.“We are staying in our lane,” Carr told CNBC’s David Faber at the Milken Global Conference in LA.“There are three separate things that are going on. President Trump has his lawsuit against CBS that’s in state court. Haven’t read that complaint. I don’t know what all the complaints are. There’s a transaction before us, and there’s a 60 Minutes complaint. The last two have to do with the FCC. The first one doesn’t.”Trump sued over the news magazine editing of an interview with former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The dispute is being mediated. Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholders, is said to be anxious to close sale to David Ellison’s Skydance. The longtime executive producer of 60 Minutes, Bill Owens, quit recently citing corporate editorial pressure.The merger was announced last summer.The complaint Carr refers to was lodged against 60 Minutes by a conservative group, the Center for American Rights, over the 60 Minutes broadcast.Pressed by Faber on Paramount-Skydance, Carr said he had “no timeline to announce.” Asked if a decision on deal would come at the same time as the complaint, he said, “We haven’t made a decision exactly on the alignment.”The FCC is “looking at the 60 Minutes thing right now … We put that out for comment, and we’re going to make a final decision there, ultimately, based on the law and the facts and the record … We don’t have a final decision at this point. The comment cycle closed. We’ve heard from a lot of people. We’re looking at that separately. We have lots of transactions before us right now at the FCC, including a deal that involves CBS. But again, no sort of final decision there either.”Asked by Faber what he thinks of President Trump’s disparaging comments about media companies – like CNBC’s current parent Comcast – Carr said, “I take note of it. I look at it. But you know, at the end of the day the President has his own First Amendment rights. I think it’s important that we have a back and forth, a give and take on these issues. I think it’s, you know, good and healthy for the country.Trump has ranted of Comcast on Truth Social that “This whole corrupt operation is nothing more than an illegal arm of the Democrat Party. They should be forced to pay vast sums of money for the damage they’ve done to our Country. Fake News is an UNPARDONABLE SIN!”Faber asked him if it impacts how Carr does his job.“No. I mean, look, we take the facts as we find them.”Trump’s lawsuit from October over the 60 Minutes edit claims the network violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, a law typically used by consumers to challenge false advertising. He claimed that the show purposely edited one of Harris’ answers to make her look better and boost her election chances. CBS denied that it was deceptive, and said that the edit was a common TV news industry practice.
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