FCC commissioners face ethics backlash over Paramount gifts amid media merger
Ethics experts and former government officials have condemned the acceptance of gifts as a blatant conflict of interest that compromises the agency's impartiality and may invalidate the FCC's decisions on the Paramount-Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery deals.
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty have drawn sharp criticism from ethics experts after accepting expensive gifts from Paramount Global while the company sought regulatory approval for its merger with Skydance Media and a subsequent hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. The gifts included gala tickets and skybox seats at the Kennedy Center’s annual honours event, which took place in December as Paramount launched its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Ethics experts and former government officials have condemned the acceptance of these gifts as a blatant conflict of interest that compromises the agency's impartiality. The situation has raised concerns about potential recusal requirements and the validity of the FCC's decisions, with legal challenges to the merger likely. Federal ethics rules generally ban employees from taking gifts from entities that are regulated by or seek official action from their agency.
The controversy centres on the timing of the gifts relative to the commission's regulatory actions. Commissioner Olivia Trusty cast a decisive vote in May 2025 approving Paramount’s $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. Records obtained by ProPublica indicate she received tickets worth more than $12,000 from Paramount for the December gala. Chair Brendan Carr and his wife sat in a private skybox valued at $125,000 per ticket, alongside Paramount CEO David Ellison and other executives.
Walter Shaub, who led the federal Office of Government Ethics from 2013 to 2017, stated that no top federal regulator should accept gifts from a regulated company with interests their work will foreseeably affect. He emphasised that the appearance of such gifts is terrible and that what is at stake is nothing less than the public’s trust in government. Virginia Canter, a former White House ethics lawyer, described the situation as shocking and disturbing, noting that the commissioners cannot participate in the matter without damaging the integrity of the government’s decision-making process.
The FCC’s review of the merger is one of the final hurdles facing a historic $110 billion consolidation that would unite Paramount Skydance with Warner Bros. The deal faces fierce opposition, including a lawsuit from California, New York, and 10 other Democratic states seeking to block the merger under anti-monopoly laws. Experts warned that the commissioners’ gifts might become central in legal challenges, with the Justice Department potentially investigating potential violations of federal rules or laws.
