Executives at Paramount Global are discussing, internally and informally, what it might take to settle a lawsuit by incoming President Donald Trump against CBS News centered around a 60 Minutes interview with his then rival Kamala Harris, Deadline has confirmed.
Trump claimed the interview had been deceitfully edited to her benefit, filing the suit in late October in the Northern District of Texas.
CBS’ attorneys say Trump’s attempts to punish the network for its editorial judgments is barred by the First Amendment.
CBS filed a motion to dismiss. The federal judge there has given Trump until Jan. 24 to respond.
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Will it be moot? Settlements with Trump are flowing and capitulation in the air for executives of media (and tech) companies that will have business before the new administration. Disney’s ABC recently agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential foundation and library and $1 million in legal fees to settle a libel lawsuit over comments that George Stephanopoulos made on This Week in March.
It would be unusual if Paramount Global execs were not discussing options.
CBS parent Paramount Global has a very big bit of business pending — selling itself to Skydance, a deal that requires the transfer of broadcast licenses from one to the other. The transfers must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick for Commissioner, has said publicly the FCC will give the proposed merger a closer look, indicating that editorial fairness would be considered.
Meanwhile, a conservative group called the Center for American Rights filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission objecting to the transfers for, among other things, CBS “track record of ideological bias and news manipulation.” Paramount Global shot back, saying the filing are “procedurally defective, seek relief that raises constitutional concerns, and/or otherwise lack merit.”
Trump himself has called for the broadcast licenses to be revoked, something departing FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel condemned in final remarks as she dismissed a series of complaints.
“The action we take makes clear two things. First, the FCC should not be the President’s speech police. Second, the FCC should not be journalism’s censor-in-chief,” she said.
CBS insisted it had not edited the interview “deceitfully,” explaining pretty clearly why. 60 Minutes, it said, “gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.”
Shari Redstone-controlled Paramount Global and David Ellison’s Skydance have a lot riding on the merger, the result of painfully long and twisting negotiations over a big chunk of 20204. Executives have realized that they may need to offer concessions to get it across the finish line, said the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the internal talks around a settlement.
Paramount and Skydance executives have considered a number of possible changes the company could make to shore up CBS News editorial operations while reassuring Trump’s camp, the WSJ said today, including adding new processes around programming and possibly releasing the transcript of its 60 Minutes interview with Harris, which it has so far refused to do.
So far the talks at Paramount have remained internal.