Editing Sumner Redstone (section)

===CBS===
One of Redstone's largest acquisitions came in the form of Viacom's former parent, CBS. After the FCC modified regulations in 1999 to allow companies to own two television stations in the same media market, CBS president and former Viacom President and COO [[Mel Karmazin]] proposed a merger with Redstone.<ref>{{harvnb|Hagey|2018|p=165}}</ref> On September 7, 1999, Redstone and Karmazin announced that Viacom would buy CBS for $37.3 billion, at the time the biggest media merger of the twentieth century; the newly merged Viacom/CBS would become the second largest media company behind [[Time Warner]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hagey|2018|p=166}}</ref> Viacom had a wide range of assets such as the CBS and [[UPN]] broadcast networks; [[cable television]] networks including [[MTV]], [[VH1]], [[Nickelodeon (TV network)|Nickelodeon]], [[Comedy Central]], and [[Black Entertainment Television|BET]]; the [[pay television]] network [[Showtime (TV network)|Showtime]], [[Radio programming|radio]] ([[Infinity Broadcasting]], which produced the [[Howard Stern]] [[Talk radio|radio show]]s), [[Paramount Pictures]], [[Paramount Television]], and [[King World Productions]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Michael King dies at 67; TV's King World Productions launched 'Oprah' |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-michael-king-20150530-story.html |website=Los Angeles Times |access-date=August 15, 2020 |date=May 30, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hagey|2018|pp=7, 167, 175, 183}}</ref>

After CBS and Viacom split in 2005, Redstone remained chairman of both companies, but two separate CEOs were appointed for each company, [[Les Moonves]] for [[CBS Corporation|CBS]] and [[Tom Freston]] for [[Viacom (2005–2019)|Viacom]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hagey|2018|p=190}}</reF><ref name="Sutel"/>

In 2007, former ''[[CBS Evening News]]'' anchor [[Dan Rather]] sued CBS and other parties such as Redstone in New York state court for breach of contract after CBS declined to renew his contract following [[Killian documents controversy|a controversy]] over a story by Rather on ''[[60 Minutes II]]'' about then-President [[George W. Bush]]'s [[George W. Bush military service controversy|military service]]. The [[New York Court of Appeals]] dismissed the case in 2009.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://danratherjournalist.org/about-dan/controversies|title=Controversies|work=Dan Rather: American Journalist|publisher=Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin|accessdate=October 20, 2023}}</ref>