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Dan Rather on Paramount's $16 Million Trump Settlement: ‘It Was a Sell-Out to Extortion by the President' (EXCLUSIVE)
Dan Rather on Paramount's $16 Million Trump Settlement: ‘It Was a Sell-Out to Extortion by the President' (EXCLUSIVE)

Yahoo

time03-07-2025

  • Business
  • Yahoo

Dan Rather on Paramount's $16 Million Trump Settlement: ‘It Was a Sell-Out to Extortion by the President' (EXCLUSIVE)

Legendary former CBS News anchor Dan Rather expressed disappointment Wednesday at Paramount Global's decision to pay $16 million to the Trump administration and settle its lawsuit over a '60 Minutes' report. 'It's a sad day for journalism,' Rather told Variety. 'It's a sad day for '60 Minutes' and CBS News. I hope people will read the details of this and understand what it was. It was distortion by the President and a kneeling down and saying, 'yes, sir,' by billionaire corporate owners.' More from Variety California Gov. Gavin Newsom Says Paramount's Trump Settlement 'Seems Transactional,' Tells Media Companies to 'Do the Right Thing' Amid Threats The CBS News Settlement Proves Trump Is Winning His War on the Press Sen. Warren Wants an Investigation Into Paramount's $16 Million Trump Settlement: 'This Could Be Bribery in Plain Sight' Most legal scholars agreed the suit — in which Trump accused '60 Minutes' of deceptively editing an interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris — was frivolous and wouldn't hold up under the First Amendment. 'What really gets me about this is that Paramount didn't have to settle,' Rather said. 'You settle a lawsuit when you've done something wrong. '60 Minutes' did nothing wrong. It followed accepted journalistic practices. Lawyers almost unanimously said the case wouldn't stand up in court.' Rather expressed a full backing of his former colleagues at CBS News and '60 Minutes': 'My support for them is total, absolute,' he said. 'I do really think they fought a good fight on this, and they'll continue to fight. The people on '60 Minutes' and at CBS News didn't just take it lying down. They did their best to stop it.' Nonetheless, he said he wasn't shocked by Paramount Global's settlement. The decision to strike a deal was widely seen as a critical step to receiving approval from the Trump-controlled FCC for Skydance's $8 billion acquisition of the media conglom. 'I was disappointed, but I wasn't surprised,' he said. 'Big billionaire business people make decisions about money. We could always hope that they will make an exception when it comes to freedom of the press, but it wasn't to be. 'Trump knew if he put the pressure on and threatened and just held that they would fold, because there's too much money on the table,' he added. 'Trump is now forcing a whole news organization to pay millions of dollars for doing something protected by the Constitution — which is, of course, free and independent reporting. Now, you take today's sell-out. And that's what it was: It was a sell-out to extortion by the President. Who can now say where all this ends?' Rather then pointed to the larger issue of what this means for the United States as a democracy. 'It has to do with not just journalism, but more importantly, with the country as a whole,' he said. 'What kind of country we're going to have, what kind of country we're going to be. If major news organizations continue to kneel before power and stop trying to hold the powerful accountable, then we all lose. 'And then big time law firms have been settling right and left, kneeling the same way,' he said. 'Big universities doing the same. Trump is extorting what he wants out of them. Now he's extorting what he wants out of news organizations. So when I say, 'Where does this go?' What are the effects on journalism as a whole?' Asked what advice he might give the folks at CBS News and '60 Minutes,' Rather humbly said it's not his place — but that they already know 'in their hearts, in their very being, the best things to do. I will say that, I do expect them to fully double down now on whatever great reporting they're allowed to do.' In his more than 60 years as a journalist, Rather said he's never seen the profession face the kind of challenges it's now up against. 'Journalism has had its trials and tribulations before, and it takes courage to just soldier on,' he said. 'Keep trying, keep fighting. It takes guts to do that. And I know the people at CBS News, and particularly those at '60 Minutes,' they'll do their dead level best under these circumstances. But the question is what this development and the message it sends to us. And that's what I'm trying to concentrate on.' Best of Variety Oscars 2026: George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Wagner Moura and More Among Early Contenders to Watch New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts?

John Oliver takes aim at Donald Trump's big beautiful bill, slams it for gutting 'medicine for the sick and food for the hungry'
John Oliver takes aim at Donald Trump's big beautiful bill, slams it for gutting 'medicine for the sick and food for the hungry'

Time of India

time30-06-2025

  • Politics
  • Time of India

John Oliver takes aim at Donald Trump's big beautiful bill, slams it for gutting 'medicine for the sick and food for the hungry'

John Oliver hit back at Donald Trump's legislative agenda. | Credit: YouTube John Oliver shifted his focus to United States President Donald Trump on the June 29 episode of Last Week Tonight, specifically taking aim at Trump's ambitious and controversial 'big beautiful bill'. John Oliver focused on the bill's efforts to slash America's social safety net in order to facilitate the bill's proposed tax cuts, which would disproportionately benefit the wealthy. In effect, John Oliver characterized Trump's legislative agenda as empowering the richest people in America at the expense of the country's most vulnerable. The Last Week Tonight episode focused specifically on how Donald Trump's bill would impact Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Responding to Republican politicians downplaying the bill's impact, he said, "this is medicine for the sick and food for the hungry, the stakes are just higher." John Oliver accuses Donald Trump's bill of gutting Medicaid I'm heading to the Senate floor to fight back against Republicans' 'Big Beautiful Bill" that rips away health care from 17 MILLION people to give tax breaks to billionaires. — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 29, 2025 John Oliver brought up reporting that claimed the bill will add trillions of dollars to America's national debt and accused Trump of misleading his base with his claims of the bill leading to a 'blue collar BOOM'. He revealed that the 'big beautiful bill' would weaken former President Barack Obama's landmark Affordable Care Act by adding more red tape to the insurance process, making it more likely for people to get kicked off their healthcare plans. He accused the proposed tightening of Medicaid work requirements to effectively serve the same purpose. John Oliver hit back at Republican politicians like Dr. Mehmet Oz and Joni Ernst, who attempted to justify these stricter work requirements, by stating that the data does not support their claims that doing so would actually increase employment in the country. Rather, John claimed that the end result of these stricter requirements would be more people, even eligible ones, simply dropping out of Medicaid altogether. John Oliver explored the bill's impact on SNAP 🚨MAJOR BREAKING: Senate Democrats have forced EVERY WORD in Trump's 900 page Big Beautiful Bill to be read on the floor before the vote. The move will delay the vote to cut Medicaid and SNAP, raise energy costs, and give tax breaks to the ultra-rich. This is historic. — CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) June 29, 2025 John Oliver explored the bill's projected impact on the SNAP "food stamps" program, with the legislation planning to slash federal funding to SNAP by $287 billion over the next 10 years. John explained how these cuts would result in state Governments being forced to bear the burden of financing the SNAP program, which could result in some states further shrinking the program, or outright opting out of SNAP altogether. John Oliver believed that Republicans were being deceptive when they said the stricter work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP were done out of a commitment to meritocracy. Instead, he accused the party of facilitating the mass removal of people enrolled in Medicare and SNAP because of the added administrative hurdles they'd have to clear, making Donald Trump's bill incredibly harmful to America's most vulnerable and marginalized people. For more news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News. First Published: Jun 30, 2025, 14:40 IST Pulak Kumar is an entertainment and current events writer who got his start with bylines in Sportskeeda and Koi Moi. He's immensely passionate about understanding and analyzing the latest happenings in Hollywood, anime, gaming and pop culture. Read More 30/6/2025 15:31:25

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