There are some things more important than money 💰

On the "60 Minutes" lawsuit.

(Image via Wikimedia Commons)

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Bill Owens, the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” has told staff he absolutely will not apologize to Donald Trump amid pressure from senior executives to settle a lawsuit brought by the president.

Here’s the key bit:

The comments by Bill Owens, the executive producer who oversees the long-running news program, came as CBS’s parent company, Paramount, continued to pursue settlement talks with Mr. Trump. The president is accusing the network of deceptively editing an interview with his rival, the Democratic candidate for president, Kamala Harris. Many legal experts have described the lawsuit as far-fetched and baseless.

“There have been reports in the media about a settlement and/or apology,” Mr. Owens said, according to two people who heard his remarks. “The company knows I will not apologize for anything we have done.”

Many Paramount executives believe a settlement would increase the odds that the Trump administration would approve a pending multibillion-dollar merger with another company, and Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, supports the effort.

Let’s make one thing crystal clear: This lawsuit is totally and completely ridiculous.

Trump is asking for $10 billion (yes, “billion” with a “b”) in damages because, according to him, CBS News, which runs “60 Minutes,” edited an answer from then Vice President Kamala Harris on foreign policy to make her look better and help her win.

At issue is the fact that CBS ran one part of a long Harris answer during its “Face the Nation” program and a shorter — and more cogent — part of the answer during its primetime “60 Minute” show.

“To paper over Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news,” Trump’s filing alleged.

But, that’s not what happened. Instead, CBS — as networks do all the time — cut a longer answer for “Face the Nation” and a shorter one for “60.” It was all part of the same answer. Nothing was added. Or changed.

In fact, CBS said all of that when the claim was initially filed.

“The interview was not doctored; and 60 MINUTES did not hide any part of the Vice President’s answer to the question at issue,” a spokesperson said at the time. “60 MINUTES fairly presented the Interview to inform the viewing audience, and not to mislead it. The lawsuit Trump has brought today against CBS is completely without merit and we will vigorously defend against it.”

Except, well, maybe not.

Because last week news broke that Paramount, which owns CBS, was in negotiations with Trump’s legal team to settle the lawsuit.

What changed? Certainly not the merits of the case which are — and always have been — utterly ridiculous.

No, what changed is a) Trump won and b) Paramount is pursuing a merger with SkyDance — a merger that, as president, Trump’s administration could make much more complicated.

As the Times noted last week:

Now Mr. Trump is back in the White House, and many executives at CBS’s parent company, Paramount, believe that settling the lawsuit would increase the odds that the Trump administration does not block or delay their planned multibillion-dollar merger with another company, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.

The subtext is now just text.

Will Owens’ stop the settlement from happening? Probably not.

Candidly, with the amount of money Redstone and other top executives at Paramount stand to make from the merger, if Owens is a sticking point they will likely just instruct CBS to get rid of him.

Because that’s how this stuff works. The answer to all of your questions is money.

Regardless of how this all shakes out, however, Owens’ principled stand is a ray of light and hope.

Yes, he is just one guy. And the corporate machine may well roll past — or over — him. But, here’s the thing: He knows that. He knows it would be FAR easier for him (and better for his job security) if he issued a one-sentence apology to Trump even if he didn’t believe it.

But Owens also knows he didn’t do anything wrong. That Trump brought this suit as a way to score points in the late stages of a presidential campaign against the “fake news” media. That Trump had zero expectation of winning the suit.

In short, Owens knows that this is ALL bullshit. All aimed at corporate media kowtowing to Trump — on things where he is clearly in the wrong — in order to curry favor for their other financial interests.

So, kudos for Owens for standing up and saying that up is still up and down is still down. And that there are more important things than making a buck.

As I have said a whole bunch of times lately in this space, the legacy media is not going to do the sort of independent reporting and analysis that is absolutely necessary in this moment.

They have too many other interests, other bosses, other agendas.

Here’s my agenda: The truth. Facts. Context. My ONLY goal is to bring you the best analysis of our political moment possible. I don’t have a boss. I don’t have any corporate interests. It’s just me.

If you want to support someone who is absolutely committed to calling balls and strikes no matter what uniform the batter at the plate is wearing, I hope you consider investing in what I am building here. A paid subscription is $6 a month or $60 for the year.