In another big win for President Donald Trump and another devastating loss for the propaganda press, Paramount — parent company of CBS News — has agreed to an eight-figure settlement with the president over 60 Minutes’ cheap fake pre-election interview with Kamala Harris.
Paramount will make a $16 million contribution to Trump’s future presidential library and cover the plaintiffs’ attorneys fees, CBS News was forced to report late Tuesday. Fox News Digital reported that the settlement could ultimately reach more than $30 million to settle Trump’s election interference complaint against the broadcast news network.
The CBS News story was quick to note that neither Trump nor the co-plaintiff, Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, “will be directly paid as part of the settlement.”
“The settlement did not include an apology,” the network news outlet petulantly added.
But Paramount has agreed that its storied but troubled television news magazine will release transcripts of sit-downs with presidential candidates moving forward, “subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns,” Paramount said in a statement to multiple news outlets.
‘Widely Viewed’
The mediated settlement draws to an end the lawsuit Trump’s campaign filed not long after the former vice president and the Democrats’ stand-in candidate for president beclowned herself in the October interview. It is the latest victory for the president against a Trump-hating corporate media that have effectively served as a public-relations firm and attack dog for Democrats.
In December, ABC News agreed to a $15 million contribution to the Trump library in settling a defamation lawsuit in which old Clinton operator George Stephanopoulos wrongly accused the incoming president of being found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
The Disney-owned news outlet did note its regret about the error.
In reporting its own parent company’s settlement, CBS News claimed Trump’s lawsuit was “widely viewed s an attack on the First Amendment.” Then again, 60 Minutes was “widely viewed” as a Harris campaign asset for selectively editing Harris’ bobbleheaded answer to a question on U.S.-Israeli relations. The massaged portion aired on 60 Minutes after Harris’ babbling answer from the same question appeared on CBS News’ Sunday morning talking heads program, Face the Nation.
CBS claimed it made the decision in the interest of brevity in a “wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.”
“Taken at face value, the explanation is an admission that producers chose to air a more flattering (‘succinct’) portion of Kamala’s comments when a separate version showing the same exchange was posted online beforehand and was widely panned because of the vice president’s ridiculous, unintelligible response,” The Federalist’s Eddie Scarry wrote in the aftermath of the scandal.
News Distortion
Earlier this year, Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr released the full unedited Harris interview with 60 Minutes and the unedited transcript. CBS has cooperated with the FCC’s investigation into a news distortion complaint filed by Center for American Rights, a conservative law firm. The complaint remains under investigation. Meanwhile, Paramount needs FCC approval for its proposed $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media.
As CBS News noted in its clenched-teeth story on the settlement, the lawsuit was filed in Amarillo, Texas, “a portion of a federal district court where the sole judge is a 2019 Trump appointee, and it was based on a state consumer protection law that is intended to prevent advertisers from misleading the public about a product being sold.”
“CBS News is not headquartered in Texas, nor did the interview take place there,” the news outlet clarified.
Trump originally demanded $10 billion but doubled his demand earlier this year after adding allegations of false advertising and unfair competition to his complaint. Paramount has denied any wrongdoing.
“With this record settlement, President Donald J. Trump delivers another win for the American people as he, once again, holds the Fake News media accountable for their wrongdoing and deceit,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told Fox News Digital.
“CBS and Paramount Global realized the strength of this historic case and had no choice but to settle. President Trump will always ensure that no one gets away with lying to the American People as he continues on his singular mission to Make America Great Again.”
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
