The Federal Communications Commission's approval of CBS owner Paramount's $8 billion merger with Skydance came with a condition to install an ombudsman, which FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has described as a "bias monitor." It appears that the bias monitor will make sure the news company's reporting meets standards demanded by President Donald Trump.
"One of the things they're going to have to do is put an ombudsman in place for two years, so basically a bias monitor that will report directly to the president [of Paramount]," Carr told Newsmax on Thursday, right after the FCC announced its approval of the merger.
The Carr FCC claims there is precedent for such a bias monitor. But the precedent cited in last week's merger approval points to a very different case involving NBC and GE, one in which an ombudsman was used to protect NBC's editorial independence from interference by its new owner.