Paramount Global Blasted For Settling Donald Trump's '60 Minutes' Lawsuit: 'Threatens Journalists' Ability To Do Their Job,' WGAE Says
The $16 million settlement, announced late on Tuesday, came after months of wrangling and protest within CBS News. The lawsuit was seen by many legal observers as meritless, but Paramount Global needs Trump administration approval for its merger with Skydance Media.
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The Writers Guild of America East, which represents writers at 60 Minutes and elsewhere in the news division, said that they stand 'behind the exemplary work of our members at 60 Minutes and CBS News. We wish their bosses at Paramount Global had the courage to do the same. This settlement is a transparent attempt to curry favors with an administration in the hopes it will allow Paramount Global and Skydance Media merger to be cleared for approval. Paramount's decision to capitulate to Trump threatens journalists' ability to do their job reporting on powerful public figures.'
Ruth Ben-Ghiant, the author who writes about authoritarianism and propaganda, wrote on X, 'Had they consulted with someone, anyone, who knows about authoritarian shakedown tactics and Mafia states, they would have learned that by paying out they have confirmed their weakness in the eyes of the predator.'
Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in a statement that Paramount's legal exposure in the 'frivolous' lawsuit was 'negligible.' 'Paramount should have fought this extortionate lawsuit in court, and it would have prevailed. Now Trump's presidential library will be a permanent monument to Paramount's surrender, a continual reminder of its failure to defend freedoms that are essential to our democracy.'
One organization, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in May that it planned to file a shareholder derivative lawsuit against the company if there was a settlement. Seth Stern, a spokesperson for the organization said that they were consulting with lawyers, and said, 'Paramount's spineless decision to settle Trump's patently unconstitutional lawsuit is an insult to the First Amendment and to the journalists and viewers of 60 Minutes.'
Former correspondents for major media outlets also weighed in, including Maria Shriver, who wrote of the settlement, 'Tragic. Heartbreaking. What a major disappointment. Wow.'
More to come.
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