a day ago
CBS News anchor swipes at parent company for settling Trump lawsuit ‘it said is without basis in law and fact'
John Dickerson ended Wednesday's broadcast of CBS Evening News by subtly swiping at the network's corporate boss Paramount for shelling out $16 million to settle Donald Trump's lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview, noting that the company itself said the president's case 'is without basis in law and fact.'
The veteran anchor's commentary was even more pointed on the show he hosts for the network's streaming platform, as he noted that the settlement 'poses a new obstacle' for the network's journalists.
'Can you hold power to account after paying it millions? Can an audience trust you when it thinks you've traded away that trust?' Dickerson pondered.
Journalists and free speech advocates have absolutely pilloried Paramount for capitulating to the media-bashing president in a case that legal experts described as frivolous and the network's own lawyers said was completely without merit, warning that it sets an increasingly dangerous precedent.
'Behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated,' the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression stated. 'This settlement will only embolden the president to continue his flurry of baseless lawsuits against the press — and against the American people's ability to hear the news free from government intrusion.'
Beyond that, the company is facing the threat of civil litigation and congressional probes over allegations that it violated anti-bribery statutes, as Paramount needs the Trump administration to approve its massive $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media. Paramount, for its part, has insisted that the lawsuit is 'completely separate from, and unrelated to' the transaction and the FCC approval process.
At the end of Wednesday's telecast of CBS Evening News, Dickerson delivered a fairly straightforward recap of the settlement and what led up to it, which was the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with then-Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris just ahead of the 2024 election.
'Under the terms of the settlement worked out with a mediator, Paramount will pay $16 million to cover Mr. Trump's legal costs. Whatever's left will go to his presidential library. No money will be paid directly to the president,' Dickerson noted. 'The settlement does not require an apology or expression of regret for the editing of the interview, which was done in accordance with long-held CBS News standards and widely accepted journalistic practices.'
The news host also pointed out that despite Trump's allegations that CBS ran a different portion of Harris' answer to a question during a Face the Nation promotional clip to make her look better, the network has repeatedly denied this. Additionally, Dickerson explained that the 60 Minutes transcript revealed that the president falsely claimed the network had pulled a response from another question asked of Harris and 'deceptively edited' it in.
After telling viewers that a senior Paramount executive told shareholders this week that the corporation only settled to avoid what he called the 'high and somewhat unpredictable costs of legal defense, Dickerson brought up that this took place as the company is looking to close the Skydance merger.
'That deal needs Trump administration approval,' he concluded. 'The corporation said the settlement of the Trump lawsuit is completely separate from and unrelated to the merger. In the end, Paramount decided to settle a suit it said is without basis in law and fact and an affront to the First Amendment.'
Over on CBS Evening News Plus, which airs on Paramount's streamers, Dickerson was even less sparing in his criticism of the network's corporate overlords.
'We pride ourselves on our BS detector, so it ought to work on ourselves, too. When it doesn't, the stakes are real, a loss of public trust, the spread of misinformation,' he said in a monologue focused on Paramount's payoff to the president.
'A visitor to our newsrooms might wonder why we debate a single word for so long, why it takes hours to answer the simple question, what is this story about, why there's a cry of frustration when a detail is off by an inch,' Dickerson continued. 'That is what it looks like when it is deeply felt, when the audience's concerns become ours, passed by bucket brigade from the subjects of our stories to correspondents, to producers, to editors, fact-checkers, and writers.'
Noting that the 'obstacles to getting it right are many,' he then declared that the settlement 'poses a new obstacle' before asking: 'Can you hold power to account after paying it millions? Can an audience trust you when it thinks you've traded away that trust?'
In the end, he pointed out, 'the audience will decide that' and that job of CBS News' journalists is 'to show up' and 'honor what we witness on behalf of the people we witness it for.'
The conglomerate, which is hoping to complete its merger later this month, could soon be staring down lawsuits and investigations over claims that it 'bribed' the president in order to push the Skydance deal through.
'Today is a dark day for press freedom. Paramount's spineless decision to settle Trump's baseless and patently unconstitutional lawsuit is an insult to the journalists of '60 Minutes' and an invitation to Trump to continue targeting other news outlets,' Freedom of the Press Foundation said in a statement. The advocacy group is also gearing up to pursue legal action on behalf of shareholders to 'stop this affront' and hold the company's board accountable.
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who had warned Paramount in May that a settlement could potentially violate laws against bribery, promised to challenge the settlement in both Congress and the courts.
'This looks like bribery in plain sight,' Warren said on Wednesday. 'Paramount folded at the same time it needs Trump's approval for a billion-dollar merger. I'm calling for an investigation into whether any anti-bribery laws were broken, and I'm working on a new bill to rein in this kind of corruption.'
Meanwhile, CBS News staffers past and present are expressing despair and fear over what the settlement means for the once-revered network and its newsmagazine, which has already lost two respected newsroom leaders due to tensions surrounding the company's handling of the lawsuit.
'No one is a fan of Shari right now,' one network staffer told The Independent, referencing Paramount chair Shari Redstone, who was the driving force behind the decision to settle. 'People are still angry and frustrated and morale is very low.'
Former CBS News correspondent Armen Keteyian called the settlement 'the nadir for the network' and 'a breach of the public trust Murrow, Cronkite, Hewitt and thousands of us worked decades to build.'
