Taylor Sheridan Loves To Run His Mouth, Except When It Actually Counts

I’ve deliberately avoided talking too much about Presidential politics in recent weeks because I know everyone here already gets their fill. You can’t open a browser or pick up your phone without encountering a fresh batch of horrors. It’s constant. And while the man’s popularity continues to plummet and the courts push back on nearly every move and executive order (which, again, are just pieces of paper with only as much power as the American public allows), it hasn’t stopped him from inflicting hell upon our teetering democracy.

I make exceptions when it concerns journalism and television, because that is our purview. Many journalists are still doing their jobs, but their employers—the corporations and billionaires—keep erecting roadblocks to protect their shareholders and bottom lines. Case in point: today, mediation begins between CBS/Paramount and the Trump Administration over a bullshit case that should’ve been dismissed outright. Unfortunately, Shari Redstone, the largest shareholder in Paramount, appears poised to mediate a settlement in hopes that Trump will greenlight the deal with Skydance. It’s basically a bribe. Not basically. It is a bribe. Trump is using the legal system to extract a payoff from Paramount in exchange for political favor.

I understand Redstone is in a no-win situation. If she settles, she obliterates the reputation of CBS News’s crown jewel, 60 Minutes. If she doesn’t, the deal falls apart and maybe Paramount doesn’t survive. But the choice is clear: she can either continue to erode the free press and walk away with $2.5 billion, or she can take a stand on behalf of democracy and manage with her mere $500 million in personal wealth. It feels like a no-brainer.

And here’s what I really don’t get: why would David Ellison and Skydance want to move forward with a deal that sullies the very brand they’re trying to buy? And why would Taylor Sheridan, who has positioned himself as a free-speech libertarian and a vocal critic of government overreach, continue to work with a corporation that has so eagerly bent the knee to fascism? You know what’s even more important to Paramount than 60 Minutes? The Taylor Sheridan universe.

Sheridan’s work appeals to red-state audiences, yes, but it also champions the Constitution, the military, and the importance of resisting tyranny. Lioness, Landman, and the entire Yellowstone universe are, at their core, defenses of personal freedom. If Sheridan means what he writes, and if his principles extend beyond the script, then maybe it’s time he walked or at least fucking releases a statement. If he’s the man he purports to be, he shouldn’t let his voice or his stories be used to launder the reputation of a company that sold out the First Amendment for a merger.

Bill Owens resigned from 60 Minutes after 37 years with CBS News because he believes in the independent press. Maybe Taylor Sheridan should take his billion-dollar value somewhere else, somewhere that doesn’t fold to autocrats. Or is he just another corporate yes-man, using his shows to preach about American values and preserving a way of life, while letting his bosses help dismantle the very foundations those shows claim to uphold? I watch every goddamn one of those shows, in part because some of those values speak even to “liberal coastal elites” who don’t want government meddling in our personal freedoms or making a mockery of the First Amendment. Sheridan understands American history — it’s all over his Yellowstone prequels — and I know that the characters played by Kevin Costner, Harrison Ford, Billy Bob Thornton, and Zoe Saldana wouldn’t roll over for this bullshit. They’d speak up, and just like in Yellowstone, they’d blow it all up and hand the land back to its original owners, the Native Americans, before letting themselves be owned by greedy, corrupt corporations and billionaires (Spoilers).

But I guess Taylor Sheridan loves to run his mouth except when it actually counts.