Paramount reaches settlement with Trump that could top $30 million, source tells Free Beacon
CBS News staffers are blasting parent company Paramount over its settlement with President Donald Trump, which could top $30 million, calling the deal a “cowardly capitulation” and a “betrayal” of the network.
“This settlement is a cowardly capitulation by the corporate leaders of Paramount, and a fundamental betrayal of ’60 Minutes’ and CBS News,” veteran 60 Minutes producer Rome Hartman told Fox News.
CBS Evening News executive producer Guy Campanile, meanwhile, is “clearly annoyed” by Paramount’s payout, according to a staffer familiar with the network’s Wednesday editorial call addressing the settlement. “I would say almost everyone is upset because it impacts the brand as a whole,” the staffer told Fox.
The open revolt comes after Paramount agreed Tuesday to pay a sum potentially exceeding $30 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit, which accuses 60 Minutes, CBS’s flagship news program, of deceptively editing an interview last year with then-candidate Kamala Harris to boost her presidential campaign.
The settlement includes a lump sum payment of $16 million to cover Trump’s legal expenses and donate to his future presidential library. It will also likely include eight figures’ worth of advertisements, PSAs, or similar content promoting conservative causes for free, a source familiar with the negotiations told the Washington Free Beacon.
While Paramount’s current brass have disputed the advertising provision, the incoming management team that is expected to take over after the company’s merger with Skydance plans to honor it, the source said. Paramount has not responded to a request for comment.
CBS Evening News anchor John Dickerson also slammed Paramount’s payout to Trump. “The obstacles to getting it right are many, but the Paramount settlement poses a new obstacle,” Dickerson said in a monologue on his streaming show. “Can you hold power to account after paying it millions? Can an audience trust you when it thinks you traded away that trust? The audience will decide that.”
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team called the settlement “another win for the American people as [Trump], once again, holds the Fake News media accountable for their wrongdoing and deceit.”
“CBS and Paramount Global realized the strength of this historic case and had no choice but to settle,” the spokesman said.