A mediator has proposed that Paramount Global and President Donald Trump should settle the latter’s lawsuit against CBS over its “60 Minutes” interview with former vice president Kamala Harris for $20 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The outlet reports that the potential settlement would include a $17 million donation to Trump’s presidential foundation or museum, as well as millions in legal fees and public service announcements on Paramount-owned networks to fight antisemitism.
The latest development comes after the Wall Street Journal previously reported that Trump shot down Paramount’s offer to settle the lawsuit for $15 million, with him aiming to get at least $25 million and an apology at the time. The Journal said it’s unclear if Trump is still seeking an apology and emphasized that settlement talks remain fluid and an agreement may not be reached.
Legal representatives for CBS and Trump did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment. Paramount declined to comment.
The complaint takes aim at Harris’ response to a question on whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was listening to the Biden administration, which was different in the final cut that aired on Oct. 7 than what aired in an earlier promo on “Face the Nation.”
The president is suing the network for $20 billion, alleging that the Harris interview caused him “mental anguish” after being deceptively edited to make her look good. He also claims that its “false advertising and tampering” withheld viewers’ attention from him and his social media platform Truth Social, resulting in a decrease in value for Trump Media and Technology Group and his other media holdings while also violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
CBS News has maintained that Trump’s accusations of deceitful editing are false, explaining that the promo shown on “Face the Nation” used a longer section of Harris’ answer. It also turned over the transcript and camera footage from the interview to the FCC as part of the agency’s investigation into allegations of “news distortion.”
In a court filing this week, CBS’ lawyers slammed the suit as “meritless” and said it’s an attempt to “evade bedrock First Amendment principles.” They added that Trump has “not plausibly alleged that he personally suffered ‘an injury to a commercial interest in reputation or sales’” and that the Harris interview and promo are “fully protected editorial speech.”
The high stakes legal battle comes as Paramount’s pending $8 billion merger with Skydance Media awaits regulatory approval from the FCC due to a required transfer of broadcast licenses of the media giant’s 28 owned-and-operated local TV stations. The deal, which executives have said would close in the first half of 2025, recently triggered its first automatic 90-day extension after failing to close by April 7.
If the merger is not closed by the time that extension expires next month, it would automatically be pushed another 90 days into October. After that, if the deal is still not closed, the FCC blocks the merger or one of the parties involved breaches the terms of the agreement, then Skydance and Paramount will have the option of terminating the deal.
When asked by reporters last week whether he sees the agency’s review being resolved soon, Trump replied: “I hope so. Ellison’s great, he’ll do a great job with it.” But he also took the opportunity to blast CBS for the Harris interview.
“What they did was they interviewed Kamala, her answer was horrendous, I would say election-threatening,” he said. “They took the entire answer out, and they took another answer from another question and put it in. And they did that, I understand, a number of times … We caught ’em, and they are very embarrassed by it, and they are working on a settlement now.”
Democratic Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden have issued a warning to Paramount’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone that reaching a settlement in exchange for regulatory approval could violate federal anti-bribery laws. The California State Senate has also launched an investigation into the matter and invited former “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens and former CBS News president Wendy McMahon to testify.
FCC chairman Brendan Carr has argued that the settlement talks with Trump are unrelated to the agency’s review of the Skydance deal. But he has warned that “all options remain on the table” in the agency’s ongoing investigation into alleged “news distortion” related to the Harris interview, including potentially revoking CBS’ broadcast license if the network is found to have violated the agency’s public interest standard.
Paramount’s settlement talks come as Disney previously paid $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit Donald Trump brought against ABC News and star anchor George Stephanopoulos. Meta also paid $25 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit about being kicked off Facebook and Instagram after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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