As of this writing, the biggest media related story is the Paramount/Skydance merger finally being approved. Unfortunately, said approval under the Trump administration comes with various conditions: the promise that Paramount will ditch its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and install an ombudsman to watch over CBS News for “bias” (read: any negative stories about Trump/conservatives). To grease the merger approval wheels, Paramount paid Trump $16 million to settle his frivolous and unfounded “60 Minutes” lawsuit, as well as canceled “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” with no replacement series in sight. Paramount claims the cancellation is out of “economic reasons”; Colbert, of course, has frequently made fun of the thin-skinned commander-in-chief.
The same goes for “South Park,” now a Paramount+ exclusive at the cost of paying its creators a whopping $1.5 billion (with a “b”). That’s a sum that could’ve paid for a series of Disney/DreamWorks-animation-level films, or greatly boosted their existing animation studios, instead of propping up a single nearly-30-year-old cartoon (however lucrative it is for ratings). After the billion dollar deal, “South Park” made news this week for finally directly making fun of Trump, after the show that supposedly “makes fun of everyone” avoided directly using Trump to do so during his first term. The episode used the same “he’s ‘gay for Satan’” jokes they used 25 years ago for Saddam Hussein (with Trump in Hussein’s place), plus jokes about Trump’s “anatomy” via the use of deepfake AI. (The White House did take notice of all this.) Did I mention $1.5 billion equals the (non-inflation-adjusted) budgets for “Frozen 2,” “Coco,” “Encanto,” “Toy Story 4,” “Moana 2,” “Inside Out 2,” “The Lion King” 2019 remake, and its prequel “Mufasa,” combined? And AI still sucks, even if it’s being used to mock Trump?
While other media conglomerates have bent the knee to Trump, Paramount is probably the most egregious and crass example we’ve seen so far. It also fails at the basics of not caving in to bullying or extortion: what’s to stop Trump and company from demanding more concessions from Paramount in the future? And of course, this all undermines any trust in or integrity to CBS News, as well as tarnishes its long journalism history.
Alternatives to Paramount+ (and CBS News)
Boycotting a massive media conglomerate is difficult, or even impossible. See: exclusive sports contracts with specific networks, or the fact you can only legally get “Mission: Impossible” films and “Star Trek” from one specific company. While Paramount isn’t as big as Disney or Warner Bros, they do own quite a bit. That said, if you do want to at least cut down on directly funding Paramount, the easiest ways I can think of:
- Cancel Paramount+. Major streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video already carry Paramount’s film and TV library, so why bother paying a monthly fee to Paramount? You’ll also want to delete the Pluto TV app, as Paramount owns this free ad-supported service.
- DVDs and Blu-rays exist for Paramount franchises such as “Star Trek,” “SpongeBob,” and “South Park” (the franchises that make up two-thirds of the reasons most people get Paramount+). You can even buy used discs from eBay. The public library also offers DVDs and Blu-rays.
- Avoid CBS News. Since CBS News’ trustworthiness is now compromised and questionable for the near future, I advise turning elsewhere for news: NPR, “PBS News Hour,” CNN, NBC News, and ABC News all exist. The same goes for avoiding CBS’s newsmagazines such as “60 Minutes.” If they’re going to compromise journalism principles for an authoritarian like Trump, why should anyone trust them for news?
In my case, I canceled Paramount+ awhile ago, since I concluded it was cheaper to buy my favorite “Star Trek” movies and Nickelodeon cartoons on DVD/Blu-ray.
I note the state of things under Trump is at the point that this Paramount story eclipsed the other major Trump-caused media story that also occurred over the past week or so: Trump eliminating funding for PBS and NPR.
Image: “Paramount Studios Los Angeles” by Tips For Travellers is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (Flickr)
