In yet another capitulation by Big Media to the ravenous whims of aspiring authoritarian Donald Trump, Paramount Global has succumbed to the insidious intimidation of a tyrannical threat intended to quash the freedom of the press guaranteed by the Constitution’s First Amendment. It’s just the latest assault on the media that Trump frequently refers to in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.”
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On Wednesday morning it was announced that Paramount had agreed to a settlement of the lawsuit that Trump had brought against CBS News, alleging that the network had defamed him by editing part of an interview with Kamala Harris. Never mind that the the editing (which was nominated for an Emmy) was proper and routine and done only for time and clarity. To Trump it was an assault on his tender sensitivities…
SEE THIS: Snowflake Trump Whines He Suffered ‘Mental Anguish’ From the 60 Minutes Interview of Kamala Harris
The settlement was nothing more than Paramount bowing to the extortion of a mob boss president who was only interested in exacting revenge on a news organization that had the audacity to present a fair and balanced interview of a political opponent and to report the truth about him. As reported by CNN…
“CBS News parent Paramount Global has agreed to pay $16 million to resolve a legally dubious lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump over a ’60 Minutes’ news report last fall.” […]
“Legal experts maintained that Trump’s suit was frivolous and that CBS was on solid ground to fight and win the case in court. But corporate priorities trumped journalistic principles. Paramount has been trying for months to complete a lucrative merger with Skydance Media, and the deal requires approval from the Trump administration, in part because CBS owns local stations that are licensed by the government. This gave Trump a form of leverage over Paramount.” […]
In short, Paramount paid a bribe to Trump in order to get him to allow their multibillion merger with Skydance Media (owned by Trump associates Larry and David Ellison) to proceed with approval from Trump’s FCC. The fate of the merger was of – shall we say paramount – concern to the chairwoman of the corporation, Shari Redstone, who stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars when the merger is completed.
The settlement that Paramount agreed to was for $16 million that would cover Trump’s legal expenses, with the remainder going to his eventual presidential library. But far worse than that, it establishes a precedent for bullying news enterprises in order to shape their reporting or to make them pay for being honest and independent. And despite the fact that there was no apology or other statement of wrongdoing or regret, Trump still claimed that he scored a total victory. His legal team said that…
“[The settlement] 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.”
None of that statement is remotely related to reality. It’s hard to sue for $20 billion in damages – which was the original amount sought by Trump – and settle for 0.08% of that, and spin it as a strong case that Paramount “had no choice but to settle.” Particularly when Trump couldn’t even get any kind of an apology, and the funds would not be going directly to him, but to his library, if there ever is one.
Nevertheless, the damage done to the reputation of CBS News is significant and enduring. It was a decision by their corporate parent to sacrifice the network’s credibility in order to enrich their owners. And their weakness makes it harder for other news organizations to stand up to the kind of criminal protection racket tactics that Trump is so notorious for engaging in. Hopefully any other media outfit facing this in the future will have more courage than than the cowards at Paramount.
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