Inside CBS News: Fear, anger and a silver lining after Paramount-Trump settlement
On Tuesday night, those fears came true.
Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to settle Trump's legal salvo against '60 Minutes' over the editing of an interview with his 2024 opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Within the news organization, there was anger over what is widely seen as a capitulation to Trump in order to clear a path for Paramount's $8-billion merger with David Ellison's Skydance Media. The case was labeled as frivolous by 1st Amendment experts.
But among some CBS News veterans, tempers were calmed by a sobering reality: that the outcome could have been worse.
The biggest concern inside the news division since Trump's complaint was that the media company would be strong-armed into making an apology or statement of regret over a case that they believed had no merit. Amid the internal anger over the settlement, there is relief that that did not happen.
'Everybody knew that was a line in the sand,' said a relieved CBS News veteran not authorized to comment publicly on the matter.
Another journalist at the network, speaking on the same condition, said the thinking among many was that any financial payment of less than $20 million without an apology would count as a partial win.
As the negotiations to end the suit lingered, it became more apparent that corporate interests overrode any concerns about the appearance of caving to Trump's demands.
Trump filed suit in October, claiming '60 Minutes' edited an interview with Harris to make her look smarter and bolster her chances in the election, which Trump won decisively. CBS denied the claims, saying the edits were routine.
'If there wasn't a merger pending and they took this to court they would have won,' the journalist said of Trump's case. 'I think they understood that if they made an apology they would have an internal rebellion and they would have because there was nothing to apologize for.'
Some say that the departures of former '60 Minutes' executive producer Bill Owens and CBS News and stations head Wendy McMahon were enough to satisfy the Trump camp's desire for an apology. Both executives were adamant that CBS News did nothing improper in the handling of the Harris of interview.
Trump's legal team claimed victory.
'President 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,' a spokesman said in a statement.
But while '60 Minutes' avoided the humiliation that would have come with a statement of contrition, the program that is the foundation of the news division now has to move forward in an era of media mistrust on the political right and disappointment on the left by those who believe courage is in short supply.
According to several CBS News insiders who spoke to The Times, no one is expected to depart '60 Minutes' in protest of the settlement decision.
Andrew Heyward, a former CBS News president who is now a consultant, said it will be up to the new owners of CBS to maintain the program's journalistic independence. 'If that's jeopardized in the future, that would be unfortunate for CBS News and the country,' he said.
Though there is anger, many feared a bleak future for the news organization and the rest of the network if Paramount Global couldn't close the Skydance deal. The lawsuit was seen as an obstacle to the deal, which needs approval from the Federal Communications Commission, run by Trump appointee Brendan Carr.
'We can get outraged all we want, but the fact is we were in a really precarious situation,' said one of the journalists not authorized to speak publicly. 'If that merger went dead, I don't know if anyone would have come along and bought the whole company.'
While ownership change usually generates fear and uncertainty through media organizations, insiders at CBS News say they will be happy to see Paramount Global's controlling shareholder Shari Redstone in their rearview mirror once the Skydance deal is done.
The feelings inside the news division regarding Skydance range from hope for new investment from deep-pocketed Ellison to resignation that 'it can't get any worse.'
As for any damage to its reputation, CBS News is taking some comfort in the fact that ABC News hasn't noticeably suffered from its own $16 million settlement over anchor George Stephanopoulos mistakenly saying Trump was convicted of rape rather than sexual abuse in the civil suit brought by E. Jean Carroll. Stephanopoulos signed a new contract at the network amid the controversy and his program 'Good Morning America' hasn't suffered a ratings loss since.
Viewers have high expectations for '60 Minutes,' which after 57 seasons still ranks as the most-watched news program on television (it's also the most profitable show on CBS). If the program is allowed to maintain the same standard of deep reporting it's known for, the audience will get past a bad corporate decision, according to Heyward.
'People on the right will say it's another example of mainstream media getting what it deserves,' Heyward said. 'People on the left will say it's another example of a corporation caving to President Trump for its own selfish interests. And most people will go back to watching '60 Minutes' and expect strong independent reporting without fear or favor — that's what really matters.'
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Trump has pledged to "unleash" American oil and gas and these 15 US stocks have developments that are poised to benefit. We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years. A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars: 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 2035 Levered FCF ($, Millions) US$505.0m US$572.0m US$660.5m US$652.0m US$652.3m US$658.3m US$668.3m US$681.3m US$696.6m US$713.7m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x6 Analyst x5 Analyst x2 Analyst x1 Est @ 0.05% Est @ 0.92% Est @ 1.52% Est @ 1.95% Est @ 2.25% Est @ 2.45% Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 7.7% US$469 US$493 US$528 US$484 US$450 US$421 US$397 US$376 US$356 US$339 ("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$4.3b The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 2.9%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 7.7%. Terminal Value (TV)= FCF2035 × (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = US$714m× (1 + 2.9%) ÷ (7.7%– 2.9%) = US$15b Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= US$15b÷ ( 1 + 7.7%)10= US$7.3b The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is US$12b. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of US$252, the company appears about fair value at a 15% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind. Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Huntington Ingalls Industries as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 7.7%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.106. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Check out our latest analysis for Huntington Ingalls Industries Strength Debt is well covered by earnings. Weakness Earnings declined over the past year. Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Aerospace & Defense market. Opportunity Annual earnings are forecast to grow for the next 3 years. Good value based on P/E ratio and estimated fair value. Threat Debt is not well covered by operating cash flow. Paying a dividend but company has no free cash flows. Annual earnings are forecast to grow slower than the American market. Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it shouldn't be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. 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