FCC Officials Took Pricey Gifts From Paramount as the Company Needed Approval for Billion-Dollar Deals

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: ProPublica

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive for the 2025 Kennedy Center honors gala. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

FCC Officials Took Pricey Gifts From Paramount as the Company Needed Approval for Billion-Dollar Deals

by Corey G. Johnson
July 15, 2026, 5:00 am

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Reporting Highlights
* Expensive Gifts: Despite regulating broadcast media, FCC commissioners have accepted pricey tickets to the Kennedy Center honors gala from CBS or its parent company, now Paramount.
* Conflict of Interest: Ethics experts say that by accepting the gifts, FCC commissioners are compromising the agency’s impartiality and should avoid acting on Paramount’s pending merger.
* Mixing Business and Pleasure: After voting for a Paramount merger, Commissioner Olivia Trusty took tickets worth over $12,000. FCC Chair Brendan Carr has accepted tickets worth at least $63,000.

These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.

The rich and famous who filed into the Kennedy Center’s opera house in December were there to enjoy one of the nation’s most exclusive celebrations of the performing arts: the center’s annual honors gala. ... The black-tie event, hosted by President Donald Trump, prioritized tickets to people who donated more than $75,000 to the center. This year, it feted Hollywood icon Sylvester Stallone, the legendary glam rock band Kiss and the Grammy Award-winning disco pioneer Gloria Gaynor.

Among the attendees that evening were two lower-profile government officials whose regulatory decisions had been crucial to the future of the gala’s broadcast sponsor, CBS, and its parent company, Paramount. ... Five months earlier, Federal Communications Commissioner Olivia Trusty cast a decisive vote approving Paramount’s historic $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. Now, the commissioner and a guest enjoyed the star-studded celebration thanks to tickets gifted to her by Paramount worth more than $12,000, according to ethics disclosure records obtained by ProPublica.

The other commissioner who approved the merger watched from a prized perch. FCC Chair Brendan Carr and his wife sat in a private skybox with Paramount CEO David Ellison and other executives from Paramount and CBS. Such seats sold for $125,000 a ticket, according to Kennedy Center guidelines. ... It’s unclear if Paramount gifted Carr the premium seats because the FCC has yet to make public his financial disclosure for last year. ... However, past disclosures show Carr and Trusty are among seven FCC commissioners who have accepted Kennedy gala tickets from CBS or its parent company over the last decade. Ethics experts told ProPublica this poses a blatant conflict of interest since the commission regulates the network. Carr’s previous financial statements show he has accepted tickets at least seven times since his 2017 appointment, totaling over $63,000 in gifts.

Last December’s ceremony attended by Trusty and Carr took place as Paramount was launching a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, a move that would later result in a merger agreement that requires FCC approval. ... Federal ethics rules ban employees from taking gifts from any entity that does business with, is regulated by or seeks official action from their agency. ... Four ethics experts told ProPublica that by accepting the premium tickets Trusty and Carr compromised the FCC’s impartiality and should not take part in any upcoming decision on the merger.

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Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/paramount-mergers-fcc-kennedy-center-gala

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Hat tip, Joe.My.God.

https://www.joemygod.com/2026/07/report-fcc-officials-took-pricey-gifts-from-paramount/

[Lovie777]

1. Discovery, investigations, follow the money, deals, fraud, etc. ....................

expose the dirty hands and money shakes.

This will lead to the very top of the elites illegal maneuvers.

[FakeNoose]

2. Well see, we have laws against that

And they aren't "gifts" ... they are BRIBES.

[yardwork]

11. If Democrats can take back Congress maybe we can apply some laws.

Right now dictator Trump controls the DOJ, the Supreme Court, all federal agencies, and his party has full control of Congress. Also the "news" media is controlled by a few billionaires who are funding the whole thing.

If we don't retake Congress this fall....

[Prairie Gates]

3. Prosecute all corruption that occurs during the Trump administration

[onenote]

6. What about the same gifts during other administrations

I don’t think FCC officials should be accepting these gifted tickets but it’s been going on for a long time and the recipients include appointees of both parties as the story makes clear.

[Prairie Gates]

12. "What about..."

I wouldn't have thought "Prosecute all corruption that occurs during the Trump administration" a controversial statement, but to each their own, I guess.

[onenote]

19. I wouldn't have thought that

treating the same acts the same regardless of political party wouldn’t be controversial but to each their own I guess.

[yardwork]

13. Who will prosecute these crimes?

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Most corrupt regime in history.

[yardwork]

14. Certainly the most corrupt in American history.

Globally, history shows it can get much worse.

[sinkingfeeling]

16. True.

[hoosierspud]

5. Colbert was right

About bribery.

[Midnight Writer]

7. This is how our government works now.

Corruption is King.

[patphil]

8. Didn't that become legal when Harlen Crow and Leonard Leo gave huge "gifts" to Clarence Thomas?

I mean, no one on the Supreme Court said anything about it not being legal, so it clearly didn't break any laws.

[bluedigger]

9. I don't have a problem with them getting comped to the event.

I can see where they might be appropriate attendees, but no way should Paramount be paying for it. The Center can comp them themselves.

[yardwork]

15. It's a conflict of interest.

They had no business being there at all.

[orangecrush]

10. Robber Barons are back in style

[sakabatou]

17. Holy kickback, Batman!

[maxsolomon]

18. IOKIYAR

Move along.