Trump was furious. He threatened Paramount with an additional lawsuit alleging defamation, according to people close to the situation who were not authorized to comment.<\/p>\n
The behind-the-scenes drama eventually would culminate with Paramount agreeing to pay $16 million to end the president\u2019s battle over edits to October\u2019s Harris interview, which Trump alleged was manipulated to boost the then-vice president\u2019s election chances. Trump\u2019s suit had demanded $20 billion in damages.<\/p>\n
The deal resulted from months of back-and-forth among a constellation of power players with competing interests: the president, mogul Shari Redstone, tech billionaire Larry Ellison and his son David<\/a>, Hollywood super agent Ari Emanuel, CBS News\u2019 ousted leader Wendy McMahon and Jeff Shell, a former NBCUniversal chief now with RedBird Capital Partners, which backs Ellison\u2019s Skydance.<\/p>\n The settlement, which the president approved late Tuesday, included a commitment by Trump to drop his claims and not sue over the May \u201c60 Minutes\u201d broadcast, according to sources and a Paramount statement.<\/p>\n Paramount said it agreed to pay Trump\u2019s legal fees. The remainder of the $16-million settlement will go toward his future presidential library. <\/p>\n \u201cLarry Ellison is a friend of mine. He\u2019s a great guy,\u201d Trump told reporters following a Thursday night rally in Iowa. \u201cI think he\u2019s going to run CBS really well, and I think he\u2019s making a good deal to buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n The beleaguered company behind \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d and \u201cYellowstone\u201d mustered victories during the negotiations, withstanding the Trump team\u2019s earlier demand for a $100-million payout, the knowledgeable sources said. <\/p>\n The company also refused to apologize for CBS\u2019 reporting or edits, a stance to protect its journalistic ethics and 1st Amendment rights.<\/p>\n \u201cThis settlement allows Paramount to focus on its prospective sale, and CBS can maintain its principles,\u201d said C. Kerry Fields, a business law professor at the USC Marshall School. \u201cBut principle has its price, and there certainly was one set here.\u201d<\/p>\n The eight-month skirmish with Trump shined a harsh light on Paramount\u2019s vulnerabilities \u2014 and deep divisions within the company and its prospective new owners.<\/p>\n Paramount had a narrow window to reach a truce. The company wanted to finalize the settlement before Wednesday, when Paramount held its annual shareholder meeting and three new members joined the board<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cThis [settlement] was all about survival \u2014 it was that dark,\u201d Fields said. \u201cParamount has to execute the sale to Skydance in order to survive.\u201d <\/p>\n At first, Paramount\u2019s sale to the Ellison family seemed like a sure bet. Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corp., is close to Trump and his company is a possible buyer for TikTok, another deal of interest to the president. The landmark Paramount-Skydance deal, struck a year ago<\/a>, could reshape one of Hollywood\u2019s original studios and the entertainment landscape. <\/p>\n Redstone and her family agreed to part with their entertainment holdings, National Amusements Inc., and controlling Paramount shares. The family\u2019s shaky finances were a catalyst for the sale. Redstone has borrowed heavily to meet debt obligations, including a $186-million term loan from Larry Ellison last year. The family is waiting for the cash from the sale of Paramount and National Amusements to the Ellisons and RedBird, a private equity firm.<\/p>\n But an unexpected misstep altered the deal\u2019s course. <\/p>\n Last fall, \u201c60 Minutes\u201d invited Trump and Harris to participate in preelection interviews. Trump agreed, then backed out. CBS News went forward with a Harris sit-down. <\/p>\n Former Vice President Kamala Harris talks to \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Bill Whitaker.<\/p>\n (CBS News)<\/p>\n Correspondent Bill Whitaker<\/a> asked Harris about the Biden administration\u2019s rocky relations with Israel\u2019s prime minister. Producers used different portions of her answer on two programs: a convoluted response on CBS\u2019 Sunday morning show \u201cFace the Nation,\u201d and a more succinct part on \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d <\/p>\n Trump and his supporters zeroed in on the discrepancy. They accused CBS of doctoring the interview. CBS News denied the allegation, saying the edits were routine.<\/p>\n Days before the election, Trump sued in Amarillo, Texas, ensuring the case would be overseen by a Trump-appointed judge. <\/p>\n His lawsuit alleged the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d edits amounted to election interference \u2014 \u201cmalicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public,\u201d in the suit\u2019s words.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. <\/p>\n (Bloomberg)<\/p>\n 1st Amendment experts said the case had no merit; some figured it was a campaign stunt.<\/p>\n Days later, Shell, the RedBird executive who will become Paramount\u2019s president should Skydance take over, held a conference call with top CBS executives. Shell suggested \u201c60 Minutes\u201d release the full Harris interview transcript in a bid for transparency, according to people familiar with the matter. <\/p>\n News executives refused, drawing a clear division between some high-level Paramount executives and Ellison\u2019s team. <\/p>\n Those Paramount executives have bristled over Shell\u2019s involvement, including a comment he reportedly made to McMahon late last year, stating the company eventually would have to settle. Skydance has said it has an agreement with Paramount that gives Ellison and Shell the ability to give input on key business issues \u2014 even before acquiring Paramount. <\/p>\n A spokesperson for Shell declined to comment.<\/p>\n The role of Shell, ousted from his previous role running NBCUniversal after acknowledging an inappropriate relationship with an underling, has been controversial. Representatives for the creators of \u201cSouth Park\u201d have accused him of overstepping his authority and meddling with a protracted negotiation over their overall deal and streaming rights to the long-running cartoon. A representative for Shell denied that accusation. <\/p>\n Trump had scored previous victories over media organizations. In December, the Walt Disney Co. agreed to pay him $16 million, including $1 million for his attorney fees, to end a dispute stemming from ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos\u2019 inaccurate description of Trump\u2019s liability in a civil court case. Press advocates howled.<\/p>\n Paramount held firm. But it failed to get Trump\u2019s case dismissed or moved to a court in New York, where CBS and \u201c60 Minutes\u201d are based.<\/p>\n So the company was in a box. Its sale to Skydance requires the approval of the Federal Communications Commission to transfer CBS TV station licenses to the Ellisons, and that consent has been elusive. <\/p>\n In one of his first moves as FCC chairman, Trump appointee Brendan Carr launched an inquiry into whether CBS\u2019 edits of the Harris interview rose to the level of news distortion \u2014 the crux of Trump\u2019s lawsuit. <\/p>\n In February, Carr demanded CBS release a raw transcript of the Harris interview and the unedited footage. CBS complied; the material showed Harris had been accurately quoted.<\/p>\n The Texas judge ordered Paramount and Trump\u2019s lawyers into mediation. Talks began April 30.<\/p>\n That weekend, \u201c60 Minutes\u201d ran its report on Trump and the law firms, riling Redstone and others. The Trump team and Paramount were already far apart, the sources said. <\/p>\n Soon, CBS News and Stations President Wendy McMahon was forced out<\/a>. Knowledgeable sources attributed her departure to months of strife and persistent criticism from Redstone, who serves as Paramount\u2019s chair. McMahon also made missteps, including overseeing an unsuccessful reboot of \u201cCBS Evening News.\u201d <\/p>\n Her exit followed that of Bill Owens<\/a>, the longtime executive producer of \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d who fought efforts to settle<\/a>. <\/p>\n The day McMahon was ousted, left-leaning U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) lobbed a salvo at Redstone. In a May 19 letter, they warned that Paramount board members risked possible bribery charges if they paid Trump to settle the lawsuit as a way to win FCC approval for the Skydance deal. <\/p>\n By early June, Redstone and the Ellison team were getting restless. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n