Former CBS News anchor Connie Chung slammed a controversial merger between Paramount, CBS News’ parent company, and Skydance on Friday as an attack on journalism, while also throwing shots at executives who helped facilitate the merger.
“I fear the end of CBS as I knew it,” Chung said, speaking to CNN’s Brianna Keilar.
Skydance has long sought to purchase Paramount amid regulatory scrutiny, with many critics labeling the proposal as a violation of antitrust laws. In an unrelated incident, President Donald Trump, whose administration would need to approve such a merger, sued Paramount for a case that ultimately saw the company settle with Trump for $16 million, despite critics labeling the lawsuit as being without merit, and others calling the settlement a “big fat bribe” to Trump.
“CBS was always a standalone network, it was autonomous, the news division was autonomous, and it was always unencumbered by pressures from politicians, including presidents, and unencumbered by bean counters,” Chung said. “But now, I can see very clearly that the days that I remembered are long gone.”
Chung also took shots at Paramount chairwoman of Paramount Global and Skydance CEO David Ellison, as well as Ellison’s father and Trump ally Larry Ellison, arguing the two had “tainted journalism” and “seem to only know greed.”
The merger has caught the ire of the "Late Show’s" Stephen Colbert as well, whose show Paramount cancelled last week following Colbert’s open criticism of his own network for settling with Trump for millions, instead of fighting the lawsuit. While Trump cheered on Colbert’s firing, Colbert took to social media and wrote “f— you and all your Sheldons CBS,” referencing CBS’ show “Young Sheldon,” a spinoff of the show “The Big Bang Theory.”
For Chung, the merger also represented the death of “fact-based journalism.”
“Honest, unbiased, fact-based journalism is being tainted, and that kind of journalism has disappeared,” she said.
