David Folkenflik
Under Executive Chairwoman Shari Redstone, Paramount Global has taken steps to assuage concerns in the Trump administration over news coverage at CBS. On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission approved the sale of Paramount to Skydance.
On Wednesday, Trey Parker and Matt Stone – the creators of the satirical show South Park – announced they had struck a $1.5 billion, five-year streaming rights deal with Paramount Global.
On Wednesday night, Parker and Stone's long delayed season debut on Paramount's Comedy Central channel torched the company for cancelling the CBS Late Show with Stephen Colbert - implying that it was done solely to appease one of Colbert's frequent targets: President Trump. (A cartoon Trump is shown naked in bed with Satan. It is not an appealing depiction. Nor was it intended to be.)
Paramount Global has said Colbert's cancellation, effective next June, was done solely for financial reasons. It has nonetheless occurred amid a flurry of concrete actions taken by Paramount and the Ellison family, which has been seeking to acquire the media conglomerate, to appease the Trump administration.
