Sen. Ron Wyden Is Making Productive Threats to Trump’s Collaborators

By Jacob Weindling  |  June 20, 2025 | 2:55pm
Screenshot via Ron Wyden
Media CBS
Sen. Ron Wyden Is Making Productive Threats to Trump’s Collaborators

Under the “leadership” of Shari Redstone and the Paramount board, CBS News has abandoned any right to call itself news, because their ownership is forcing journalism to take a backseat to a craven quid pro quo they are negotiating with Trump (also because CBS was caught plagiarizing two independent journalists in the same week). Paramount has been so insistent on bending the knee to Trump that they chased out 60 Minutes’ legendary producer Bill Owens and CBS News’ top executive because journalism doesn’t align with Redstone and Paramount’s business plan for CBS News. There is no subtlety in what Shari Redstone and the Paramount board want, which is to agree to bribe the Trump administration in a farcical settlement so the Trump administration can approve Paramount’s merger with Skydance Media that will reportedly net Shari Redstone $2 billion. In any other country CBS News would rightly call this shameless corruption.

One of the best things Democrats can do to try to stop Trump’s authoritarian march is to tell his collaborators that they will be held to account for any crimes they commit with this criminal administration should the party ever get back into power. One Senator has begun to articulate this, as Ron Wyden made it abundantly clear that Paramount’s desired quid pro quo with Trump will not go unnoticed by future Democratic-led Congresses should the deal go through, and Paramount is reportedly starting to get nervous about the fact that laws still might exist in the future.

Any corporate executive who signs off on a bribe to Trump should be prepared to explain their crimes in front of Congress and to the public when Democrats retake power

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— Senator Ron Wyden (@wyden.senate.gov) June 20, 2025 at 6:59 AM

This is good, and more Democrats should follow his lead. Sure, Trump and his sycophants in the mainstream media will undoubtedly portray these as unprecedented attacks on private industry, but I fail to see how declaring that laws should still exist is a bridge too far unless America is truly beyond saving. If a business wants to bet its entire future on Trumpism reigning for the rest of eternity, they are welcome to go ahead and do that, but everyone who would like to live in a country where the rule of law actually exists has a duty to remind companies that if they want to live in that country too, they must follow the rules or pay the price for being a criminal enterprise like Paramount so desperately wants to be.

If you, like Shari Redstone, don’t want to live in a country of laws and think rule by quid pro quo is pretty neat, then you should do everything you can to ensure that Trump reigns forever. But if this elite coup fails and a group of Democrats with actual spines ever get into power, don’t be surprised if consequences actually follow for once in the age of breakdown.

 
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