No apology? Well, no explicit apology. However, there are a million ways to apologize -- and for Paramount and CBS News, that number kicks up to $16 million as a down payment.
Late yesterday, Paramount settled with Donald Trump over his fraud/defamation case arising from the dishonest edits of Kamala Harris' interview with 60 Minutes. Trump had sought $20 billion from Paramount, the parent company of CBS, as well as a public apology for interfering in the election. The settlement offers no direct acknowledgment of dishonesty, but ...
Sources close to the situation told Fox News Digital that CBS has agreed to update its editorial standards to install a mandatory new rule. Going forward, the network will promptly release full, unedited transcripts of future presidential candidates’ interviews. People involved in the settlement talks have referred to this as the "Trump Rule."
CBS News refused to release those transcripts before the election. In fact, they refused to release them at all until FCC chair Brandon Carr ordered CBS to submit the transcript and the unedited video as part of a review of the incident. Most news agencies would have released the full transcript immediately, if not the full video, but the evidence made clear why 60 Minutes and CBS News was so reticent to show their work.
And let's not forget about the money, too. It's not $20 billion, but it's still more than the mediator proposed last week -- potentially, at least:
Trump will receive $16 million upfront. This will cover legal fees, costs of the case, and contributions to his future presidential library or charitable causes, to be determined at Trump’s discretion.
There is an anticipation that there will be another allocation in the mid-eight figures set aside for advertisements, public service announcements, or other similar transmissions, in support of conservative causes by the network in the future, Fox News Digital has learned. With these considerations, CBS would pay well in excess of the $15 million ABC paid Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit last year. Current Paramount management disputes the additional allocation.
Regardless, it's yet another Protection Racket Media outlet forced to settle for its dishonest manipulations and representations of both Trump and Harris during the presidential election. American media companies have done this for decades, spinning for Democrats and engaging in character assassinations against Republicans. They did it in 2016 and Trump shrugged it off, like other Republicans, but after a few years of lawfare conducted by Democrats on Trump and other dissenters, Trump decided enough was enough. And he has the resources to fight, unlike most other Republicans.
Paramount claims that it hasn't admitted to anything, and will now continue its Skydance merger:
“The settlement will include a release of all claims regarding any CBS reporting through the date of the settlement, including the Texas action and the threatened defamation action,” parent company Paramount said in a statement. ...
Paramount and Trump’s legal team had agreed to mediation designed to help the sides reach a settlement.
It was widely believed that Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, wanted to settle the suit ahead of a planned multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance Media in hopes of preventing potential retribution by Trump’s FCC, which has the authority to halt the transaction.
“This lawsuit is completely separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process. We will abide by the legal process to defend our case,” Paramount said in a previous statement on the Skydance transaction.
The FCC action was likely a bluff. Could they have thrown a wrench in the works of the merger with Skydance? Yes, but it likely would have only been temporary. Paramount could have challenged any negative finding that the FCC dropped onto the deal, and a court probably would have taken a skeptical view considering the FCC's involvement in the 60 Minutes dispute. Redstone may not have wanted the complication, but that's all it would have been once a federal judge heard the matter.
The real truth is that this was a shameful and undisguised effort by a 'news' organization to promote one presidential candidate at the expense of another. The Trump Rule won't put an end to that, but it will make it easier to prove in an immediate time frame, rather than waiting months after the election for the evidence to emerge. Redstone likely pushed to settle to eliminate the stench of that corruption as quickly as possible.
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