CBS Profits Add to Case For Independence

In CBS and Viacom’s on-again, off-again merger talks, the burden falls disproportionately on Viacom to make the case that it is worth CBS’s trouble. Its fourth-quarter earnings last week kept it in the game, with numbers that weren’t terrible enough to derail a deal.

Yet if Viacom has to perform better than feared for a deal to happen, CBS also needs to weaken. It is showing few signs of doing so.

On...