\n<\/p>\n
Paramount Skydance refused to air an ad submitted by a press freedom group that heavily criticized the network\u2019s leadership and merger with Warner Bros Discovery, with an advertising associate deeming it a \u201cconflict of interest\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Freedom of the Press Foundation had hoped to air the 30-second ad during Sunday\u2019s Ultimate Fighting Championship broadcast at the White House, which aired on the streaming service Paramount+ \u2013 though a client partner for Paramount+ told the organization\u2019s ad-buyer that such placement was not guaranteed.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of defending press freedom, CBS\u2019 billionaire owners cut deals and caved to Trump,\u201d the unaired ad states, before touching on the recent uproar at the Sunday show 60 Minutes. \u201cOne fired reporter said, \u2018CBS demanded falsehoods and bias to appease Trump.\u2019 Now Trump wants the Ellisons to buy CNN, too \u2026 Let\u2019s stop Trump\u2019s censorship and block this merger.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to an email exchange between Paramount\u2019s ad salesperson and the Freedom of the Press Foundation\u2019s ad buyer, viewed by the Guardian, the discussion about running an ad was going smoothly until the ad was actually submitted. (The organization was told that ads running during the UFC broadcast would cost approximately $300,000.)<\/p>\n
Then, on Friday afternoon, two days before the fight, the Paramount salesman sent word that the ad could not run. \u201cUnfortunately, the creative you submitted was a conflict of interest so it was not approved,\u201d the sales representative said. \u201cBut we can help you check any other creatives you want to try. Always happy to hop on a call to discuss more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seth Stern, chief of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, criticized Paramount for refusing to air the ad \u2013 although television networks regularly reject advocacy messages for a variety of reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cEllison has already shown his cards on editorial independence, but, in case there was any doubt, his company has now declined to air a straightforward message about what his proposed takeover of CNN, HBO, and other outlets would mean for press freedom. Instead, it censored it,\u201d Stern said in a statement. \u201cEllison won\u2019t air criticism of himself, his company, or his buddy Trump. These antics are bad for press freedom, bad for the public, and bad for Paramount \u2013 just look at CBS\u2019 recent struggles under Ellison\u2019s watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stern\u2019s organization instead plans to air the ad on its website dedicated to opposing the merger, which received approval from Donald Trump\u2019s Department of Justice on Friday but still faces regulatory hurdles outside the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paramount Skydance refused to air an ad submitted by a press freedom group that heavily criticized the network\u2019s leadership and merger with Warner Bros Discovery, with an advertising associate deeming it a \u201cconflict of interest\u201d. The Freedom of the Press Foundation had hoped to air the 30-second ad during Sunday\u2019s Ultimate Fighting Championship broadcast at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[8939,2036,21783,150,819,4849,17244,2035],"class_list":{"0":"post-50421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-acquisition","9":"tag-bros","10":"tag-criticizing","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-owners","13":"tag-paramount","14":"tag-rejected","15":"tag-warner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}