CBS has always leaned right, but this suck-up to Trump was simple pribery (extortion on Trump's part). Paramount agreed to pay the bribe because their spreadsheets said they will make a big profit from the merger.
But what about Parker and Stone? They just got a huge amount of free advertising, courtesy of Trump. The South Park franchise has been stale for years. Trump has just pushed this to the top of "appointment TV". Even if they have to pay Trump more bribes, that will be relatively small compared to the advertising value of these ratings.
They are probably praying that Trump does sue them. They won't settle quickly because the longer this plays out, the more money they make. And this is just one episode. If Trump hates this one, there can be many more where that came from.
The timing is astounding. I don't see how they could have done this episode without Paramount's permission. So why did Paramount allow this at the same time they are killing the COlbert show and while they are still waiting for their merger to be approved?
There is much more to this story than meets the eye. It would not be too surprising to eventually learn that the Theil/Vance crew signaled that they wanted to see this come out. and that they would protect Parker and Stone. Remember, the Valve/Murdoch Summit happens the same week as all these other things.
And speaking of timing, Congress is shut down for the rest of the Summer. When they come back, it will be about a year before the mid-terms. The GOP billionaires already got the legislation they wanted. Now their biggest concern is keeping control of Congress, because many of the goodies were intentionally pushed into 2027 to avoid the mid-terms. If they lose the House next year, then some of those goodies could be killed before they ever go into effect. Everybody in the GOP knows that Trump is toxic, and he will never have the restraint to allow the Republicans to clean up their image before the election. It is very possible that a decision has already been made to push Trump out, and we will see this rolled out in the next 90 days.
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