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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

New York, July 15, 2026 — Yesterday, Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) and the Public Integrity Project filed a shareholder’s derivative lawsuit against officers and directors of Paramount Skydance Corp. seeking to halt its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Mary S. Thomas of Thomas Law LLC, an experienced commercial litigator in Delaware, where the suit was filed, is serving as Delaware counsel on the case.

The complaint, brought on behalf of Paramount shareholder Paul Robbins against Paramount higher-ups including CEO David Ellison, seeks to prevent Paramount insiders from profiting through breaches of their fiduciary duties to the company by trading editorial independence for favoritism from the Trump administration. This pattern includes, among other things:

• Promising to “overhaul” CNN (which Warner owns), according to a recent Wall Street Journal report, and potentially firing anchors and commentators President Donald Trump dislikes, if it acquires Warner Bros. Discovery.
• Making secret contributions to the settlement of Trump’s spurious lawsuit against “60 Minutes” and, according to the Journal, pressuring Paramount directors to settle. Federal and state elected officials have said they intend to bring bribery investigations relating to the settlement.
• Installing a pro-Trump GOP donor without journalism experience as “ombudsman” at CBS News to monitor “bias” pursuant to an agreement with Trump’s Federal Communications Commission, and otherwise handing the FCC oversight over its news operation, compromising its journalism.

The corruption surrounding the deal was underscored by a ProPublica report the morning after the lawsuit was filed that Paramount gifted FCC officials expensive tickets to the December Kennedy Center Gala, hosted by Trump, after the agency approved the Paramount-Skydance merger and as Paramount prepared to seek its approval of its Warner Bros. acquisition. FCC Chair Brendan Carr reportedly sat in a $125,000 seat in a private skybox with Ellison.

The lawsuit alleges that the planned Warner Bros. merger threatens Paramount and its stockholders, as well as the press and public who rely on CBS and CNN to remain informed. Paramount’s stock price has substantially declined since execution of the merger agreement.

Robbins is bringing the suit derivatively — that is, on behalf of the company.

Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at FPF, said: “The economic terms of this merger, on their own, make no sense for Paramount shareholders. They make even less sense given reports of the Ellisons’ commitments to Trump to tank CNN’s reputation and viewership just like they did at CBS. CNN and CBS viewers want real journalism. If Paramount’s news networks are watered down to appease the administration, they’ll stop tuning in, and the public will be less informed.”

Brendan Ballou, CEO of the Public Integrity Project, said: “America’s richest people want to turn America’s most important media outlets into propaganda machines for the president. This is bad for Paramount’s shareholders. This is bad for democracy. And this is deeply corrupt. This case is about exposing and stopping that corruption.”

A copy of the complaint is available here.

Please email Seth Stern (seth@freedom.press) of FPF or Brendan Ballou (brendan@publicintegrityproject.org) of Public Integrity Project for any follow-up questions or inquiries.

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