Hello. Thank you so much. My pleasure. It's good to see you.
Sherry, the world has changed a lot since we last sat down together.
It has and it hasn't. That's right. The last time we sat down together, one of the things we talked about was the leadership in newsrooms at Paramount and beyond around the anti-Semitism issue, which I know is something that you are very passionate about. And I wanted to just get your quick take. How has that evolved from your perspective? Do you think it's gotten better? Do you think it's gotten worse?
I think it's still a problem. And I think that we've gotten to the point where news needs to be more balanced. It needs to be fact-based. I think the people's opinions are getting confused with the facts. And I think we still have the same challenge we had before, which is we need more accountability. We need more standards. We need checks and balances. And we have to go back to a place where facts are what the news is about and opinions are not facts. And by the way, you can have opinions, but then you need to have people with different opinions and different sides so people can hear everything. And I think that the line has gotten very confused between facts and opinion. So I don't think it's gotten any better. I think people are addressing it now more aggressively and hopefully in the end that will lead to a better experience for consumers.
You at the time were very vocal about how you felt CBS handled that within the organization. Now you no longer own Paramount and CBS. It's in the hands of David Ellison. Are you bullish or bearish that this problem will be — not problem, but that this situation will improve under that new ownership?
Well, clearly I'm not involved in the management of the company, but from what I've heard, I think they are addressing the issue. They are bringing somebody in to do standards. You know, I was very excited when Susan Zirinsky came on board and she started reviewing that and I think you immediately saw a change at the news. I think some of the journalists were actually grateful for the guidance that they were receiving and I think, you know, from the chatter that, you know, David's going in that direction and I know there's been talk about Bari and I think she would be a good voice. So, I'm hopeful.
And when you say she would be a good voice, meaning you think it would be good if they acquired The Free Press, elevated Bari?
Well, I'm not going to go into it from a business standpoint, but I do think she's a voice that would bring a different perspective and that I think at the end of the day, you got to give your audience credit for being smart enough to hear different points of view and being able to narrow down on the facts.
The entire process by which the Paramount Skydance deal went down took up so much space in the media universe because it was so complicated from a regulatory perspective. You had the FCC probe into CBS. You had the settlement. I want to get your take on that. Like, did you think CBS did the right thing settling?
Absolutely. I mean, having nothing to do with anything other than what our responsibility was, you know, as chairman of the board and its board members, it was very disruptive to the company. It was very expensive to run. I mean, I was not involved. I recused myself from the specifics of the settlement, but I was always an advocate for settling the case because I felt it was really a distraction. It took up way too much time in the news which really had an impact on our employees, on our ability to do other transactions. If you look at everybody else, they settle quickly to avoid exactly the problem that our company had to face in the settlement. You never know what's going to happen in discovery. The trial was set for two years from now, which would have meant this would have been a problem that had to continue for two years. There was a threat of a defamation case in Florida. And you know, having previously in another life been an attorney, going to trial is never a known. No matter how strong your case may or may not be, there are a lot of inconsistencies. And I think the best thing that's happened now is that the company's in a position where it can move forward and be in the business of doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
Outside of the settlement, there are other actions taken to ensure there would be regulatory approval. You know, I think about rollbacks of DEI policies. I think about some things like the cancellation of Stephen Colbert's show, you know, that was never explicitly stated as being part of getting regulatory approval, but it's something that I think a lot of people assumed. Do you think that they made the right choices to ensure that they got the regulatory approval?
I'm not going to tie any of that to regulatory approval. I can tell you that we had been looking at late night. It was financially not viable. It had been that way for a long time. We had made a decision months prior to the announcement that we were not going to be going forward with that show. I love Stephen. He does a great job, but we really needed to be in a financially viable business. And you saw we did that with James Corden as well. And in terms of DEI, I think the reasons why DEI exists matter and will always matter and we need to continue to fight for those issues, but I think the way in which DEI has been executed has often led to more problems than it's solved. So any of the changes that were made or continue to be made, but under us, I think we were trying to create an environment that would address the issues in a different way.
So now looking back at everything that's gone down, you are completely out. The Ellisons have completely come in. What is something that you're hopeful for about the future of CBS and of Paramount under this new leadership?
Well, I'm certainly hopeful that they get the news right. And I'm hopeful that they continue the legacy of creating great content and impactful content and making a difference. I think we did create a great culture at the company. That's one of the things that I'm really proud of. So, I hope that they continue that.
