Former CBS anchor warns Paramount merger marks 'the end' of the network and 'honest' journalism

Former CBS anchor Connie Chung warned on CNN Friday that the fresh merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media could be the end of journalism as she once knew it The FCC revealed it approved an billion merger between the two companies on Thursday with the deal set to close on August This came after several controversies involving CBS which Paramount owns such as a lawsuit settlement with President Donald Trump over a Minutes segment and canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Based on the newly formed company Paramount Skydance Corp the former CBS Evening News anchor suggested the configuration she was a part of could lose all of its independence JON STEWART BLASTS CBS FOR CANCELING COLBERT'S SHOW CALLS IT 'PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE' FOR CORPORATE MERGER I fear the end of CBS as I knew it Chung disclosed on CNN News Central CBS was inevitably a standalone system It was autonomous The news division was autonomous and it was reliably unencumbered by pressures from politicians including presidents and unencumbered by bean counters But now I can see very clearly that the days that I remembered are long gone She continued Honest unbiased fact-based journalism is being tainted and those who practiced that journalism like Edward R Murrow and Walter Cronkite that kind of journalism has disappeared I also fear that gone are the days of Frank Stanton who was the president of CBS who defended the rights of the journalism the First Amendment the fourth estate before Congress and he represented all journalists in a multitude of methods Chung placed more blame on Paramount s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone and Skydance Media CEO David Ellison for having tainted journalism with their greed She also called out company s pledge to not implement any new DEI initiatives as an insult to her and other women and minorities at CBS Several journalists have accused CBS and Paramount of acquiescing to Trump ahead of the merger through its settlement and cancellations including Chung CBS PARENT COMPANY SPARKS MASSIVE OUTRAGE WITH TRUMP LAWSUIT SETTLEMENT I have difficulty believing what they claim which is that the Minutes agreement had nothing to do with the merger or a settlement had nothing to do with the merger and also that the disappearance of Steve sic Colbert had nothing to do it had only to do with financial issues It all smells Chung revealed Paramount has been facing an intense backlash for its contemporary decisions even from several of its own employees Veteran Minutes producer Rome Hartman recounted Fox News Digital earlier this month that he thought the company s settlement with Trump was a cowardly capitulation by the corporate leaders of Paramount and a fundamental betrayal of CBS News CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPSenators Bernie Sanders I-Vt Elizabeth Warren D-Mass and Ron Wyden D-Ore also sent a letter to Ellison demanding answers about the Trump settlement and the Colbert cancellation suggesting anti-bribery laws may have been broken in order for the merger to proceed with FCC approval