That settlement between Paramount and Donald Trump over editing by ’60 Minutes’ of a shortened interview segment with Democrat Kamala Harris stinks.
For Paramount’s Shari Redstone, to settle this suit with a whopping $16 million or more payout to Trump to assuage his political ego violates journalism’s ethics and any definition of courage in the face of pressure – in this case inane pressure. Redstone appears more interested in a merger with Skydance Media, which requires approval of Trump appointee Brendan Carr at the Federal Communications Commission, than in the business of journalism.
She, like other billionaire owners of publications who are finding reason to nestle up next to Trump, simply should not be in the journalism business. She failed to back her reporters and editors — losing the longtime producer of the show and another CBS news executive to protest resignations — and she backed down from responsibility to tell Trump that his political sensitivity is irrelevant to the editing process.
The offending segment was a video clip edited for time of Harris that Trump said made her sound more politically acceptable than the longer version that had run on ’60 Minutes’ itself.
Weirdly, Trump and Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, had claimed in a federal lawsuit that CBS was guilty of “malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion” in its editing intended to “confuse, deceive, and mislead the public” and deliver the Nov. 5 election for Harris — even though she lost. Separately, Trump has sued CBS for defamation, and settlement of that lawsuit was part of this settlement as well.
Though Paramount did not apologize, as part of the settlement, Paramount agreed to release future transcripts of interviews that “60 Minutes” conducts with U.S. presidential candidates “after such interviews have aired, subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.”
It was a dumb claim from the outset, free of libel or other harms, and an expression of Trump just wanting to control journalism along with lawyers and universities, using the courts to force a settlement in his behalf.
No American viewer is better served today because of this settlement.
Threats Against Journalists
Near the headline about Paramount’s surrender was one in which Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her border czar, Tom Homan, were threatening to sue CNN and others who report on mass deportation. Journalists at CNN may have committed “prosecutable” offenses by doing basic reporting about an app called ICEBlock that allows users to report sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — reporting she said “was shameful and it could be prosecutable.”
Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth opened a press conference about details of the Iranian bomb attack on nuclear facilities by lambasting reporters, including his former Fox News colleague Jennifer Griffin, who questioned anything that suggested that the bombing run had not produced “total obliteration.” That included reporting on the government’s own intelligence agencies that had early information that the raids had only set back Iranian production capabilities by months. Hegseth, the former Fox commentator, has been leading leak investigations for months.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt regularly trashes reporters whose questions are considered “negative” about policy or whose journalism brings Trump statements into context with facts that this president has ignored or made up to suit his remarks.
In short, Trump and his team have declared war on journalists and journalism that falls short of promoting their version of not only Truth, but of what they think Americans should hear. Doing so violates not only Constitutional freedoms, but the spirit of why we see having a free press in this country as a requirement for democracy.
Even without prosecution, this administration is promoting partisan reporting through reallocation of access from mainstream organizations to supportive podcasters, often over the silliest of excuses, including whether their corporate stylebooks change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to suit Trump’s personal taste.
As Trump moves ever more quickly towards putting the military in city streets over deportations, skipping due process, reallocating money from Congressionally approved funds at will, canceling health and environmental protections and the rest, we need more critical questions, not fewer.
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