Paramount-Skydance Deal Subverts Free Speech and the Free Press in America

Open Markets Institute Executive Director Barry Lynn released the following statement on the Federal Communications Commission’s 2-1 vote to approve Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount:

“Skydance and Paramount’s self-censorship and pay-off of the Trump Administration, in pursuit of government approval of an unwise merger, is worthy of condemnation. But it’s important to view Paramount’s action within two broader contexts.

First, it marks but the latest in a long series of attacks by this administration on free speech and the free press in America, including unprecedented attacks on universities, newspapers, and even the oligarchs who control America’s communications platforms. The purpose of antimonopoly regulation is to establish a rule of law to protect individual liberty and the distributions of power on which democracy depends, not extort favors from desperate corporations.

Second, it’s important to remember how CBS and so many other news and entertainment companies came to this point. Today’s assaults on free speech and the free press are the direct result of the fantastically naïve pro-monopoly policies put in place under presidents Reagan and Clinton. It was Google and Facebook, after all, that for 15 years starved American newspapers and broadcasters of the ad dollars on which they always depended, and directly suppressed the ability of readers and viewers to connect with the reporters and publishers of their choice.

CBS and Paramount have been in deep trouble for years now. Many leading liberals helped create that crisis.

One immediate lesson stands out. Democracies around the world must beware. As the Trump administration tries to use tariffs and trade policy to loosen regulation of tech monopolists, theoretically in the name of free speech, remember always that their goal is the exact opposite.”