Shari Redstone's Road to Power at Paramount Global

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4.6 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The embattled Shari Redstone has a controlling stake in Paramount Global.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is on the media's midweek podcast. I'm Brooke Ladstone. After top CBS producer Bill Owens resigned,
0:09.5	correspondent Scott Pelly delivered a carefully worded message on 60 Minutes.
0:15.4	Stories we pursued for 57 years are often controversial. Lately, the Israel-Ghasa War and the Trump administration.
0:24.4	Bill made sure they were accurate and fair.
0:26.8	He was tough that way.
0:28.9	But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger.
0:33.5	The Trump administration must approve it.
0:36.3	Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways.
0:41.3	None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.
0:50.3	President Donald Trump's $20 billion lawsuit against CBS and Paramount Global is still standing.
0:57.6	Now, Sherry Redstone is the majority owner of Paramount.
1:01.9	Jake Tapper on CNN.
1:03.8	And she stands to make a fortune if this multi-billion dollar deal this merger goes through.
1:10.8	And it seems as if Sherry Redstone is
1:13.5	likely to bend the knee to Trump and settle this allegedly frivolous lawsuit.
1:20.9	We thought it was as good a time as any to examine how Sherry Redstone came to power in the
1:26.6	first place.
1:32.9	Back in 2023, I asked Rachel Abrams, co-author of Unscripted,
1:38.5	the epic battle for a media empire and the Redstone family legacy to lay it all out.
1:44.1	Shari took over for her dad Sumner, who died in 2020 at the age of 97.
1:45.0	He would joke that he did not need to make plans for succession because he was going to live forever.
1:50.2	Was it a joke?
	...

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