New Paramount CEO David Ellison said that he had “no interest” in wading “into the political spectrum” with CBS News, as he and other executives addressed the independence of the news division under the new company.
Although Ellison did not directly say whether the company would refrain from meddling in 60 Minutes, Redbird founder and managing partner Gerry Cardinale, the top investor in the new company, told reporters that “there’s no way we’re going to try to influence the news, because if you do that, you kill the investment basis. It’s that simple.”
As part of the FCC approval of the transaction, Skydance agreed to install an ombudsman at CBS News to take complaints over alleged bias and other issues in coverage.
But Jeff Shell, the new president of Paramount, said that the CBS News ombudsman will be a “transparency vehicle, not an oversight vehicle.”
“We’re not being overseen by the FCC or anybody else, but we do believe in transparency both in the news division and, frankly, in every other business that we’re in.” He said that the ombudsman would be a “transparent process.”
“Of course, people from the outside can utilize it, but if it’s internal, it’s mean to be something were George [Cheeks] and I can work with the leadership of news. If people think there’s bias, or they think there’s things that are done wrong with reporting, to see if something is done or not done, and see if corrective action needs to be taken. So it’s an internal process.”
Asked whether he had concern if the ombudsman’s findings on alleged bias would open up the company to an FCC complaint, or the FCC chaiman would take action, Shell said, “I don’t think we’ll get to that. I think we want to be fact based and truth based in the news organization. That’s what we’re about. That’s the legacy of CBS. I mean, Edward R. Murrow founded this place, so I don’t think so.”
There also had been concerns over potential changes at CBS News, but Ellison did not go into specifics.
Ellison said, “CBS News has an unbelievable legacy, and the way we think about news is really, fundamentally, we want to be in the trust business. We want to be in the truth business…We really want to look at the 70% of the country that kind of would define themselves as center left to center right, and really ensure that it’s a place that can be true to the legacy that we’re inheriting, and we’re going to invest behind that.”
He added, “I don’t want to politicize our company in any way, shape or form. We want to speak to the broadest audience possible.”
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