GEOFF BENNETT: The FCC approved Skydance Media's $8 billion bid to acquire CBS News' parent company Paramount.

The green light from Trump's FCC comes after Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement over a lawsuit brought by the president.

Mr. Trump accused the CBS News program 60 Minutes of deceptively editing an interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

What's more, as part of the deal, Skydance agreed to address the Trump administration's concerns about alleged bias at CBS.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr spoke about the merger and the administration's approach earlier today.

BRENDAN CARR, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission: President Trump is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape.

And the way he's doing that is, when he ran for election, he ran directly at these legacy broadcast media outlets, ABC, NBC, CBS.

For years, government officials just allowed those entities with execs sitting in Hollywood in New York to dictate the political narrative.

And he has fundamentally changed the game.

And you see that really having consequences that are just rushing all through media.

GEOFF BENNETT: For a closer look, we're joined now by Dylan Byers, senior correspondent for Puck News.

Dylan, thanks for being with us.

DYLAN BYERS, Media Reporter, Puck News: Thank you for having me, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, as we said, this deal comes on the heels of Paramount paying $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by President Trump, prompting accusations that the company essentially paid for merger approval.

Based on your reporting, what's the deal?

Was this a payoff dressed up as a settlement?

DYLAN BYERS: Well, look, it certainly seems that way.

I mean, all available evidence suggests that the answer is yes.

And I would say, in the business community, certainly in the media community right now, there's quite a bit of anxiety about a sort of pay-for-play regulatory environment, in which case, if you need any deal to get done, any merger, any acquisition, you might be forced to cough up -- the number seems to be -- whether it's Disney or Paramount, the number seems to be $16 million to the Trump Presidential Library.

Now, this is one of those things that has the benefit of, there are a lot of -- you can point to a settlement.

You can point to FCC approval.

You can point to the fact that those came within days of each other and that the regulatory review process for this took a lot longer than it otherwise might have.

And you can draw your own conclusions there.

But, of course, this is one of those things where, without the hard evidence, without the smoking gun, it's the sort of thing that the administration and the FCC is going to be able to get away with.

And in many ways, I would just cite the dissenting voice, the lone FCC commissioner who actually voted against this deal, who talked about overreach by the FCC and capitulation by Paramount.

And so long as everyone plays ball here, so long as Paramount is willing to make that $16 million settlement, so long as Skydance, the new owners who are coming in, are willing to agree to certain FCC provisions, like getting rid of DEI or hiring an ombudsman to ensure that there's no bias at the network, and allowing FCC to dictate editorial controls, then you run into a position where, call it what you will, this is the way that deals get done, at least so long as Trump is in office.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, I was going to ask you that.

Is this sort of the new template for future media deals, this sort of new era of political appeasement?

You mentioned two of the things that Skydance agreed to.

They're also agreeing to a comprehensive review of CBS, and they say they're going to ensure viewpoint diversity, in addition to getting rid of DEI at Paramount and installing an ombudsman to check for complaints of bias.

DYLAN BYERS: That's right.

And then I would say, on top of that, the president himself has claimed that Skydance has agreed to an additional $20 million in public service announcement commitments for PSAs presumably for causes that are near and dear to the president's heart.

Now, I should note, Skydance is not commenting on any of that and has not confirmed that.

But, yes, is there a new landscape here?

Sure.

So long as business leaders, media leaders are willing to make these allowances in order to do business, and so long as Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr are able to leverage the power of their offices in order to exact these settlements or these allowances, then, yes, that is the landscape.

I think what is going to be very interesting, the most recent lawsuit that Trump has filed has been against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch, who, in sort of a strange plot twist, may actually be the one media baron who has both the fortitude and the market position to actually stand up to this president and not capitulate, which would be very interesting.

GEOFF BENNETT: I know, from reading your reporting every night, that you're closely following what all of this means for 60 Minutes.

So bring us up to speed there.

DYLAN BYERS: Yes, well, look, 60 Minutes is obviously a very proud institution, a pillar of American journalism.

And it has been somewhat debilitated throughout this whole process.

The boss of Paramount, Shari Redstone, in order to get this deal done, she tried to meddle a little bit in the one sacrosanct editorial process there.

We saw the executive producer, Bill Owens, there leave.

They have since appointed a new executive producer.

But I think the big question here is, what do the new owners want to do with 60 Minutes?

In many ways, because 60 Minutes is such a powerful brand and a pillar of American journalism, and because the kind of journalism it does is a little more evergreen than, say, nightly broadcast news, you might have -- you might actually have in 60 Minutes something that is able to endure under the new ownership, although it will have to -- the bigger challenge for it is not the political challenge or the bias challenge.

The bigger challenge for that will, of course, be figuring out how to make that endure as a profitable business in a new landscape, where, of course, increasingly people are watching more on streaming, on digital, less so on linear television.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Dylan, this all feels like a major win for President Trump in his long-running fight against the media.

Help us understand how we should look at the scope of that campaign of his and the many fronts on which he is waging it.

DYLAN BYERS: Yes, look, I think indisputably this has been a win.

As you heard Chairman Carr say, he ran against legacy media, mainstream media, what he certainly would call the liberal media.

And he is winning this on multiple fronts.

He extracted a settlement from Bob Iger and Disney.

He extracted a settlement from Shari Redstone and Paramount.

They have succeeded in cutting funding, of course, for PBS and NPR, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

So he's winning this on multiple fronts.

I think the key is, in all of these cases, he had the leverage and he had the power.

And, again, I would encourage your viewers to take a closer look at his lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal, because that may be an area where he does not have the same leverage and the same power, particularly because, of course, Rupert Murdoch is the proprietor of FOX News, which has very much been in the president's corner during this administration.

GEOFF BENNETT: Dylan Byers, senior correspondent for Puck News, thanks again for joining us.

We appreciate it.

DYLAN BYERS: Thank you.