#jeff shell

Li Zhou at HuffPost:

Paramount has tasked former Trump nominee Kenneth Weinstein with addressing bias at CBS in the latest move to signal a more conservative direction for the storied news network. Weinstein will serve as an ombudsman for CBS News, a role that Skydance committed to creating as it sought Federal Communications Commission approval of its merger with Paramount earlier this year. The ombudsman is charged with fielding complaints of bias about the network’s news coverage and convening with Paramount and CBS executives to address them. Weinstein’s ties to President Donald Trump, past leadership of a right-leaning think tank and limited news experience, however, have prompted questions on his qualifications and suitability for the role.

Weinstein was previously nominated as Trump’s ambassador to Japan during his first term and has led the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank focused on a range of issues, including national security and foreign policy. He also has a track record of criticizing the Biden administration and expressing staunch pro-Israel views, according to The New York Times. And he donated roughly $40,000 to pro-Trump and Republican political groups last year, the publication noted. During past administrations, Weinstein chaired the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an independent U.S. agency now named the U.S. Agency for Global Media that supports news outlets in areas of the world with limited press freedom. He has also sat on federal advisory panels under Republican and Democratic presidents.

CBS News’s pick of conservative think think Hudson Institute head Kenneth Weinstein to serve as its ombudsman reflects the Trumpified direction it’s headed, and it’s NOT a good thing.

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Aaron Parnas at The Parnas Perspective:

Last Thursday, FCC commissioner Brendan Carr approved the $8 billion merger between Skydance Media and Paramount—an act that would normally garner attention for its financial and creative implications. But we now know that this merger came with a disturbing catch: government-mandated ideological restructuring. Paramount must now hire an ombudsman—essentially a political commissar—tasked with flagging any perceived "bias" at CBS News. To say this is unprecedented is an understatement. We’ve entered a new phase of culture war: not one merely waged on social media or cable news, but one enforced by regulatory muscle.

While Trump’s first term was marked by a toxic rhetorical war against the press—“enemy of the people,” “fake news,” “scum”—his second term appears more tactically effective. He’s not just yelling anymore; he’s governing. And he's using the full power of the federal government to reshape the media landscape in his image. The timing is impossible to ignore. Only days before this merger approval, CBS canceled The Colbert Report, an iconic show known for its sharp political satire—particularly when directed at Trump. The cancellation followed shortly after Paramount agreed to pay Trump a $16 million settlement over what he claimed was the “unfair editing” of an interview with Kamala Harris. Legal experts called the suit frivolous. But it didn't matter. The settlement came. The show got axed. And a billion-dollar merger received a presidential green light—so long as CBS cleansed itself of both "bias" and DEI. The Trump White House has also now taken to issuing official condemnations of comedians. Last week, Joy Behar was labeled “an irrelevant loser” by the administration for a tame joke about Trump’s jealousy of Barack Obama. South Park—which has lampooned every political figure imaginable—was attacked for being “irrelevant” after an episode featured Trump in bed with Satan.

The mandating of a “bias monitor” (or “ombudsman”) for CBS News and ridding the company of DEI programs are yet another reason why the Paramount/Skydance merger stinks to high heaven. The “bias monitor” idea is all about forcing CBS News to conform to the MAGA agenda.

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Former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell has officially settled his ongoing litigation with a high-stakes gambler whom Shell accused of orchestrating a financial shakedown. The confidential agreement, finalized in early 2026, dismisses all claims and counterclaims related to a dispute that originated over alleged debts and private encounters at a Cipriani venue. Both parties signed strict…

Topic / Subject Jeff Shell’s countersuit has pushed the South Park rights saga into full Hollywood chaos, mixing streaming leverage, alleged extortion, and a live public war over who is telling the truth. TL;DR Per Page Six, Jeff Shell countersued RJ Cipriani and described an alleged extortion scheme tied in part to South Park rights tensions. The filing is real. The explosive claims inside it…

Topic / Subject Jeff Shell has sued R.J. Cipriani, pushing an already ugly Hollywood legal fight into a louder phase full of extortion, defamation, and crisis-management claims. TL;DR This is a real new filing in a messy insider-Hollywood case. The suit is confirmed, but the underlying accusations are still allegations, which is exactly why the drama is high and the certainty is not. Key…

Stay Classy, Stooges

 We’ve been busy taking out the trash, shoveling snow, doing laundry, drinking heavily…    You know, important stuff.  But we’ve finally stumbled on something that piqued our interest in a world that already harbors too many Despicable Jerks.  Let’s call them the Three Stooges of modern television. Or perhaps just Three Media Idiots. First is NBCUniversal’s CEO Jeff Shell who was tossed out of…

Matt Gertz at MMFA:

Jeff Shell, NBCUniversal’s new chief executive, is reportedly considering replacing CNBC’s prime-time lineup with “right-wing talk shows,” New York Times media columnist Ben Smith reported Sunday. That drastic shift would run counter to CNBC’s business news branding, and it would put the network in competition for viewers already served by several entrenched cable channels that specialize in right-wing commentary, including Fox News. But according to Smith, the move “could allow Comcast,” the massive telecommunications conglomerate that owns NBCUniversal, “to extend an olive branch” to President Donald Trump and his supporters. The implication is that the company thinks it could get more favorable treatment from federal regulators if it gives the president more of the fawning coverage he craves.

This is how the free press could wither and die in this country. Not with federal bans on independent media outlets, or widespread government censorship. But by shifting the incentives of the corporate giants that own major news outlets just enough to convince them to voluntarily shift their business strategy to produce pro-regime propaganda.

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But Trump’s authoritarian approach matches carrots with its sticks, showing corporations that they can avoid presidential ire -- and federal regulatory actions -- if they truckle to his whims and produce propaganda supporting his administration. Fox News is the closest thing the country has to state TV, and that support for the president has repeatedly paid off for its founder Rupert Murdoch’s business interests. Facebook hired GOP political operatives to steer its policies to favor Trump, and so the president publicly favors its bootlicking chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg.

CNN and The Washington Post have continued to produce critical reporting and commentary in spite of this, and Twitter isn’t backing down from holding Trump to its terms of service. But there’s no guarantee that will last, and no telling where the breaking point might be for their owners. When will AT&T decide it would rather CNN’s coverage not anger the president? When does Bezos decide it's no longer worth the price the Post costs him in federal actions against Amazon? Smith’s report suggests that at least one company that owns news outlets is starting to hedge its bets and consider producing coverage more favorable to the president for corporate benefit. Will others follow, and either change their programming to suit the White House, or offload their news assets altogether?

Media Matters For America reports on the idea of NBCUniversal considering the proposal of turning over CNBC's primetime over to right-wing propaganda, nevermind a few prominent hosts (Kernen, Santelli) already on its payroll skew rightwards.  Primetime on CNBC is currently filled with shows like American Greed, Shark Tank, and NHL playoff games.