She said it was "a deal that was linked to a payout to settle a baseless lawsuit and other troubling concessions"

In a statement, FCC Chair Brendan Carr says the deal was allowed to go through only after the new owners agreed to make ideological changes to its news programming and end DEI policies

Skydance has emphasized that the commitments are voluntary. Previously, Skydance and Paramount had argued against conditions imposed by the FCC to mandate benchmarks for viewpoint neutrality, saying that they would be “squarely foreclosed by the First Amendment and Supreme Court precedent.”

Despite this regrettable outcome, this Administration is not done with its assault on the First Amendment. In fact, it may only be beginning," Anna M. Gomez said.

FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez issued a scathing statement of dissent following the FCC's approval of the Paramount and Skydance Media merger on Thursday, noting the agency's control over "newsroom decisions and editorial judgment" at Paramount-owned news organizations marks a "direct violation of the first amendment.

Recently, comedian Stephen Colbert—whose popular CBS Late Show will be cancelled next May despite being No. 1, in what many view as censorship due to his jokes about Trump—pointedly mocked the settlement the first chance he got, AP News reported.