Instead of fast-tracking the review of the proposed Paramount-Skydance merger, the Trump-appointed FCC chairman<\/a> opened an inquiry into whether edits of the October \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris rose to the level of news distortion. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Company has agreed that in the future, \u201960 Minutes\u2019 will release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after such interviews have aired, subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns,\u201d Paramount said.<\/p>\n The two sides have participated in mediation sessions for the past two months. Paramount said the terms of the settlement were proposed by the mediator. Paramount\u2019s $16 million payment will include Trump\u2019s attorneys fees. <\/p>\n \u201cPresident 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,\u201d said a spokesman for Trump\u2019s legal team in a statement. \u201cCBS and Paramount Global realized the strength of this historic case and had no choice but to settle.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cPresident 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,\u201d the statement continued. <\/p>\n Trump has long maintained last fall\u2019s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview was edited to make Harris look smarter to boost her November election chances. CBS denied the allegations<\/a>, saying the edits were routine. <\/p>\n The unedited footage confirmed<\/a> that Harris was accurately quoted. <\/p>\n But Trump\u2019s team said the edits caused Trump \u201cmental anguish.\u201d After returning to the White House this year, Trump doubled his lawsuit damages demand to $20 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHer answer was horrendous,\u201d Trump told reporters<\/a> last month on the White House lawn. \u201cI would say election-threatening. … Her answer was election-threatening it was so incompetent.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s lawsuit called the edits \u201cmalicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public.\u201d The trims, the suit alleged, were \u201cpartisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference.\u201d<\/p>\n CBS has acknowledged editing the interview, which is routine in the news business. Longstanding 1st Amendment interpretations give news producers wide latitude to decide what material to broadcast as long as they don\u2019t distort the information presented to viewers.<\/p>\n Paramount\u2019s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone<\/a> pushed for a settlement. The Redstone family\u2019s investment firm, which holds the controlling Paramount shares, is juggling more than $400 million in debt and she wanted to facilitate the sale of Paramount, as well as her family\u2019s holding firm, to Skydance. <\/p>\n Family members are counting on their portion of the Paramount sale proceeds. A representative has said Redstone recused herself from decisions dealing with Trump\u2019s lawsuit but the mogul had made clear her desire for a settlement.<\/p>\n The Redstone family controls 77%<\/a> of Paramount voting shares. <\/p>\n Skydance executives and their private equity partners also agitated for Paramount to end the bickering with Trump to resolve a key headache before the new owners take over.<\/p>\n Paramount, in a statement, said it has treated Trump\u2019s lawsuit \u201ccompletely separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s been nearly a year since Redstone and fellow Paramount directors approved Skydance\u2019s two-phased $8-billion deal<\/a>. <\/p>\n David Ellison, son of tech billionaire Larry Ellison<\/a>, is eager to run the company that boasts the legendary Melrose Avenue film studio, the Paramount+ streaming service, CBS and cable channels including Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET. <\/p>\n Skydance operations and personnel are expected to be folded into Paramount in the second phase of the transaction.<\/p>\n Paramount Pictures studio lot on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. <\/p>\n (Brian van der Brug\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n The deal faces one last regulatory hurdle. Paramount must win FCC Chairman Brendan Carr\u2019s consent to transfer more than two dozen CBS station licenses to the Ellisons. FCC approval has been held up for months.<\/p>\n Skydance and Paramount face an October deadline to finalize the deal or risk its collapse.<\/p>\n Redstone would then have to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to satisfy her creditors, including Larry Ellison, giving her another reason to favor a settlement.<\/p>\n Her willingness to set aside free speech values prompted push-back from journalists. The nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation decried Paramount\u2019s decision to cede 1st Amendment freedoms in an effort to advance the Skydance deal. It vowed to sue Paramount<\/a> if it settled.<\/p>\n But the deal\u2019s months-long delay was wearing. <\/p>\n Redstone separately disclosed in early June that she was being treated for thyroid cancer<\/a>. <\/p>\n The legal saga began last fall when CBS News invited both Harris and Trump to sit down with \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d a campaign season tradition. After initially agreeing, Trump backed out. <\/p>\n CBS went forward with the Harris piece<\/a> but got into hot water after the network broadcast two portions of her response to a question by CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker. When he challenged Harris about the Biden Administration\u2019s struggles dealing with Israel\u2019s prime minister, Harris gave a three-sentence answer.<\/p>\n CBS\u2019 Sunday morning show, \u201cFace the Nation\u201d aired her first sentence, which was convoluted. The following night, \u201c60 Minutes\u201d ran the second part of her answer, which was forceful and succinct. <\/p>\n Trump and his supporters cried foul, pointing to the discrepancies. <\/p>\n The showdown accelerated a week before the election when Trump filed his lawsuit in Amarillo, Texas. He accused CBS of trying to cover up Harris\u2019 \u201cword salad\u201d to manipulate the results of what was expected to be a tight election. <\/p>\n Trump won decisively, and CBS sought to have the case dismissed. <\/p>\n The network\u2019s lawyers said its journalists were protected by the 1st Amendment. It also argued that the case should be moved from west Texas, where it was heard by a Trump-appointed federal judge. The lawyers sought to get the case moved to a New York court, where CBS and \u201c60 Minutes\u201d are based. <\/p>\n The interview in question didn\u2019t mention Texas. In February, Trump added U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, his former doctor, to the lawsuit as an additional plaintiff. Jackson is a Texas resident.<\/p>\n Tuesday night\u2019s settlement stipulated that Jackson would not receive any money.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the Texas judge ordered the two sides to present their cases to a mediator. A retired judge who handles complex litigation began hearing the matter April 30. <\/p>\n The controversy stabbed at the heart of CBS News and its legacy of fearless broadcast journalism. <\/p>\n CBS News producers have long maintained they did nothing wrong. Journalists refused to sign any apology, which was long seen as a key demand from Trump and his team.<\/p>\n Inside the company, a pitched battle raged for months. <\/p>\n Vice President Kamala Harris talks to \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Bill Whitaker.<\/p>\n (CBS News)<\/p>\n In late April, the executive producer of \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d Bill Owens, quit. That prompted longtime CBS newsman Scott Pelley to inform \u201c60 Minutes\u201d viewers<\/a> the show had faced increased corporate oversight because of Paramount\u2019s desire to win the Trump administration\u2019s approval of the Skydance deal. <\/p>\n \u201cNone of our stories has been blocked,\u201d Pelley told viewers. \u201cBut Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.\u201d<\/p>\n Some corporate executives were furious over Pelley\u2019s public statements, insiders have said.<\/p>\n The Trump dispute also contributed to the departure of Wendy McMahon, the president of CBS News and Stations. She stepped down under pressure in May<\/a>. <\/p>\n There were other sore points. Redstone, who also serves as the chair of the Paramount board, had also expressed dissatisfaction with CBS News\u2019 coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n Fallout from the settlement could prompt additional headaches<\/a>.<\/p>\n Three Democrat U.S. senators warned Redstone that Paramount could face allegations of bribery if it wrote a big check to mollify Trump in an effort to facilitate the FCC\u2019s review of the Skydance deal. <\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount offered Trump $15 million to make the lawsuit go away, but he declined.<\/p>\n The issue became an unexpected pain point in Skydance\u2019s pursuit of FCC approval to take over the CBS licenses.<\/p>\n Early this year, the FCC\u2019s Carr<\/a> opened an inquiry into whether the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d edits constituted \u201cnews bias\u201d despite a longstanding acknowledgment by the FCC that it had little authority to act on complaints about accuracy or bias of reporters and news networks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe agency is prohibited by law from engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press,\u201d FCC said in guidelines posted on its website. \u201cThose protected rights include, but are not limited to, a broadcaster\u2019s selection and presentation of news or commentary.\u201d<\/p>\n Carr ordered CBS to release<\/a> the raw footage. <\/p>\n Video of the unedited interview<\/a> confirmed the network\u2019s account. But the footage also revealed that Harris\u2019 jumbled answer was clipped to its most cogent sentence. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is troubling anytime a news organization settles a suit that was plainly winnable,\u201d RonNell Andersen Jones, a 1st Amendment expert and law professor at the University of Utah, said in an interview earlier this year. \u201cIt represents lost 1st Amendment ground that didn\u2019t have to be ceded.\u201d <\/p>\n Paramount becomes the latest media company to settle, rather than risk incurring the president\u2019s wrath or face an ugly courtroom confrontation. <\/p>\n Walt Disney Co. in December settled a Trump suit against ABC News<\/a> and anchor George Stephanopoulos<\/a> by agreeing to pay $1 million for legal fees and donating another $15 million<\/a> for Trump\u2019s future presidential library. <\/p>\n The resolution came after Stephanopoulos asserted during an on-air interview that a jury had found Trump \u201cliable for rape\u201d in a civil case. Jurors had actually determined Trump was liable for \u201csexual abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos. <\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Some news outlets have fought back<\/a>, including the Associated Press, which has vigorously defended its reporters\u2019 ability<\/a> to cover the president. <\/p>\n Gannett\u2019s Des Moines Register and independent pollster J. Ann Selzer also have battled Trump\u2019s legal challenges to an Iowa poll that overstated Harris\u2019 support. The poll was published just days before the election, suggesting Harris was leading in the Hawkeye state, though she lost convincingly. <\/p>\n This week, Trump and his fellow plaintiffs moved to have their federal case dismissed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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