Paramount Skydance‘s attempt to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery has even more stink surrounding it. Two government watchdog groups have requested for an investigation into ethics violations by Federal Communications Commission members. Members accepted luxury gala tickets while Paramount was working to get government approval for its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The Democracy Defenders Fund and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have cited an investigation by ProPublica about how CBS or its parent company (which is now Paramount) have given tickets to FCC commissioners to the Kennedy Center honors gala. CBS sponsors the event. That gift acceptance included while the Paramount/Warner Bros. deal was going through the government approval process as well as other major business from Paramount, including multiple mergers.
Commissioner Olivia Trusty‘s financial disclosure lists two tickets to the December 2025 gala worth more than $12,000. Trusty voted to approve Paramount’s merger with Skydance.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr‘s financial statements shows he accepted tickets eight times since 2017 which is over $75,000 in gifts. He sat in a private skybox at December’s gala with Paramount’s CEO David Ellison and other Paramount and CBS executives. Carr voted for the Paramount-Skydance merger.
According to ProPublica, seven of the ten commissioners who have served since 2016 accepted tickets with a value of more than $260,000.
Federal ethics rules ban employees from taking gifts from any entity that does business with, is regulated by, or seeks action from the agency.
The Democracy Defenders Fund says that Carr and Trusty broke the rules on accepting gifts or even criminal laws from accepting illegal gratuities. Carr and Trusty should be required to repay Paramount the “fair market value” for their gifts and their annual disclosures should not be certified until they do so. The organization is also requesting Carr to be disqualified from any decision concerning the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
Paramount had announced it was making a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery hours after the gala and Carr endorsed the deal three months later.
The Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal is on hold while a court case plays out between the company and a dozen attorneys general. The business deal is also facing other litigation as well as unknown decisions from other governments.
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Source: Graphic Policy
