The demolition of diversity action in the entertainment industry continues. After promising the FCC that the company “will not have any teams or individual roles focused on DEI” and that it will remove “references to DEI in its public messaging, including on its websites and social media”, Skydance Entertainment and Paramount Global can finally celebrate their honeymoon as the newly merged Paramount Global. 

The long-delayed merger was finally completed on Aug. 8 (greased by a payout from Paramount to the US President to satisfy a perceived slight from CBS’s 60 Minutes). Paramount Global has also promised the FCC it will install an ombudsman to keep an eye on the political trending of CBS news content for the next two years.

Paramount Global stock is skyrocketing now, as CEO David Ellison (son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison) lays out his vision for the company, which includes prioritizing Star Trek, the show that brought a multi-racial tech utopia to 1960s TV. Yeah, I know. Weird. 

Paramount will also be looking to Oracle to provide tech infrastructure for the new company.

There’s a common view that diversity always benefits a company’s bottom line. This may be true in a free market where there really is a level playing field, where businesses can compete based on the merits of their services and skill of their workers. But the carrots and sticks applied by the US government, sometimes with an enthusiasm for central planning that Mao might have applauded, make incentives for growth, prosperity and innovation irrelevant. The scales can get tipped in whatever direction the whim of the moment dictates. 

Paramount Global is riding high this month. But the outlook for the industry in the long run may not be so bright.