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While you were (likely) sleeping — and while I was jetting across the country back to my home base in DC — Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, announced that it would pay Donald Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit he brought during the heat of the 2024 campaign.
This is an absolute disaster for journalism. Full stop.
The suit was utterly and completely frivolous. Trump alleged that his campaign — and he — had been done material harm by how CBS had handled an interview with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. At issue? The fact that CBS News had used one clip of a longer — and more rambling — Harris answer on one of its shows and a shorter, more concise Harris answer on another program.
This is absolutely standard operating procedure for TV networks. It’s called editing. You cut longer — and shorter — clips from interviews to fit the various time windows in your shows. It happens in every single interview.
CBS released records that showed there had been NO deceptive editing of the interview. The network released the full transcript of the interview as proof.
There is NO there there. None.
So, why did CBS settle? Simple. Money.
Paramount is in the midst of a massive merger with Skydance Media. The big bosses at Paramount want that deal to go through — because it will make them even richer than they already are. And they knew that an extended litigation with Trump over the Harris interview could throw a wrench in the works.
In short: They paid Trump off. Yes, I know the $16 million goes to the Trump presidential library, not to Trump himself. But that is a distinction without a difference in the fight Trump is prosecuting against the media.
Witness this statement from a White House spokesperson about the deal:
With this record settlement, 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. CBS and Paramount Global realized the strength of this historic case and had no choice but to settle.
Let me say it loud for the people in the back: THERE WAS NO WRONGDOING OR DECEIT.
But, by paying off Trump, Paramount makes that argument easy for Trump to make. Why would they pay him off if they hadn’t done anything wrong???
This is simply the latest capitulation by the legacy media to Trump’s extortion. Earlier this Disney paid off Trump — with a settlement donation to the Trump library — for a suit he had brought against ABC News.
If you think Trump will stop here, you haven’t been paying attention. Emboldened by the willingness of these legacy media outlets to capitulate to him, he will push further.
Need proof? Check this out:
Donald Trump has again threatened news outlets over coverage he dislikes, this time The New York Times and CNN over their reporting on a preliminary intelligence assessment that raised doubts that the U.S. strikes on Iran destroyed their nuclear program.
The White House has been on the warpath against journalists over their reporting, even though the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has acknowledged the existence of the intelligence assessment. Trump and his allies have go so far as to accuse CNN and the Times of denigrating the members of the military who carried out the strikes, even though their reporting was not critical of how the mission was carried out.
Trump will be president for another 43 months. And you can expect him to continue to ratchet up his attempts to discredit the media. What’s so depressing is that these legacy media outlets seem content to help him do it.
I believe today more than ever before that legacy media isn’t going to save journalism. These corporate conglomerates and billionaire owners will always put profits before the journalism. Always.
Which is why you need to financially support independent news creators like me. No one is telling me what I can and can’t say. I’m not beholden to any corporate media interest. Just me — calling balls and strikes no matter what uniform the batter at the plate is wearing.
I hope you can support that.
