The Referee Was in the Owner's Box

I wasn't expected to post after the Apple Hide My Email case post today, but then I scrolled my feed and ran into this. If you've been following along, I've been covering Warner Bros Sale since Netflix first started to buy Warner Bros. — back when Paramount wasn't even the frontrunner. Since then Warner Bros went with a counter offer from Paramount and as I was mentioned a few days ago the DOJ okayed it and several states said no and are taking it to court. On Wednesday, ProPublica gave us the part of the story that happened before any of that: how Paramount's relationship with its own regulator got started.The GalaProPublica's investigation found that FCC Chair Brendan Carr has accepted Kennedy Center Honors gala tickets from CBS or its parent company at least seven times since 2017 — north of $63,000 in gifts. The gala is sponsored by CBS. At the December 2025 event, Carr and his wife didn't just attend, they sat in a private skybox with Paramount CEO David Ellison and other…