Latest news with #TrumpSettlement
ABC News
18 hours ago
- Business
- ABC News
Paramount settles legal battle with Donald Trump over Kamala Harris interview
US media group Paramount will pay Donald Trump $US16 million (more than $24 million) after agreeing to settle a lawsuit over an interview with former presidential rival Kamala Harris. Mr Trump filed the suit, alleging the network deceptively edited the interview with Ms Harris, which aired on its 60 Minutes news program on CBS in October, in an effort to "tip the scales in favour of the Democratic Party" in the November election. CBS, owned by parent company Paramount, aired two versions of the Harris interview in which she appears to give different answers to the same question about the Israel-Hamas war. However the network and some groups have said it is normal editing common in television interviews. CBS previously said the lawsuit was "completely without merit" and asked a judge to dismiss the case. In a statement, Paramount said the million-dollar settlement would allocated to Mr Trump's future presidential library. The settlement comes as Paramount seeks approval from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for its $US8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media. Democrat Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren has called for a bribery investigation. "With Paramount folding to Donald Trump at the same time the company needs his administration's approval for its billion-dollar merger, this could be bribery in plain sight," she said. "Paramount has refused to provide answers to a congressional inquiry, so I'm calling for a full investigation into whether or not any anti-bribery laws were broken." On the campaign trail last year, and as president, Mr Trump has called for CBS's broadcasting licences to be revoked. The FCC, an independent federal agency, issues eight-year licences to individual broadcast stations, not networks. FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, said the settlement over an entirely "meritless" lawsuit was a "desperate" move by Paramount that "casts a long shadow over the integrity of the transaction pending before the FCC" and "marks a dangerous precedent for the First Amendment". Senator Bernie Sanders said: "Paramount's decision will only embolden Trump to continue attacking, suing and intimidating the media which he has labelled 'the enemy of the people'." Mr Trump's legal team welcomed the settlement on Wednesday. "With this record settlement, President Donald J. Trump delivers another win for the American people," a spokesperson said. Paramount shares fell 1.2 per cent on Wednesday. The company said it also agreed 60 Minutes would release transcripts of interviews with future US presidential candidates after they aired, subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns. At Paramount's annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday, co-CEO George Cheeks said the company chose to settle the suit to avoid the "somewhat unpredictable cost" of mounting a legal defence and the risk of an adverse judgement that could result in "significant financial as well as reputational damage", as well as the disruption of an ongoing legal battle. The case entered mediation in April after Mr Trump bumped his claim for damages to $US20 billion in Feburary. ABC with wires
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Trump settlement with CBS sparks viewer outrage
By and ALEX HAMMER FOR Published: | CBS and Paramount are set to pay a humiliating settlement to Donald Trump that goes beyond millions in cash payouts and could flood their liberal audiences with conservative content. The president is set to get $16million from CBS and Paramount straight away to reimburse him for legal fees for what he claims is misleading editing to an interview before the election with rival Kamala Harris. The remaining money will help fund a future presidential library and serve some of Trump's favorite charities, at his discretion. However, the president has also won more than $15million more in earned media for both himself and the conservative movement that could have left-leaning viewers seeing red. The president will receive that much in advertising, public service announcements and other content that backs conservative causes, Fox News Digital reports. Further, CBS will institute a new 'Trump rule' in its editorial standards that forces them to quickly put out unedited transcripts of any interviews with presidential candidates. '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,' a spokesperson for Trump's legal team said. 'CBS and Paramount Global realized the strength of this historic case and had no choice but to settle. President Trump will always ensure that no one gets away with lying to the American People as he continues on his singular mission to Make America Great Again.' The suit, filed last October, accuses Paramount, CBS and its flagship show 60 Minutes of deceptively editing an interview with then–Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris just weeks before the election. Trump alleges the footage was manipulated to 'tip the scales' in Harris's favor. Lawyers for Trump and CBS parent company Paramount have been 'engaged in good faith, advanced, settlement negotiations,' according to court filings Monday. Now, it appears that Trump is set to get more than even the $20million a mediator for both sides proposed, and is set to have a new rule named after himself at the network. Trump alleges the 60 Minutes footage was manipulated to 'tip the scales' in Harris's favor. CBS has denied the claim, slamming the allegations as coming 'completely without merit.' In recent weeks, Paramount reportedly balked at settling the suit over fears of facing legal backlash for bowing to the president. Paramount brass believed any large settlement could be considered a bribe, since the the company's proposed $8 billion merger with Skydance must be approved by the Trump administration. Trump's team has denied that his administration's approval of the deal is contingent on settling. Paramount heiress Shari Redstone, who has been pushing to close the Skydance deal, stands to make more than $1 billion as Paramount's primary shareholder. She reportedly offered to pay as much as $50 million to make the suit go away. Skydance is run by David Ellison, the son of Trump ally Larry Ellison. Last week, sources told the New York Post that David, 41, had become confident the $8 billion deal would close by the end of the summer. Former CBS CEO Wendy McMahon and longtime 60 Minutes boss Bill Owens both left their roles in protest of Paramount's willingness to settle. The A-List stars of 60 Minutes recently demanded that CBS News appoint their pick for the show's next executive producer. It's a settlement that continues Trump's winning streak against media companies he believes have engaged in dishonest practices against him. In December, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to Donald Trump to settle a lawsuit over assertions made by top anchor George Stephanopoulos that he was found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. The settlement, first reported by Fox News , was publicly filed on Saturday and revealed that the parties had come to an agreement in the suit. It stipulates that the network will pay $15 million as a charitable contribution towards Trump's presidential library. ABC will also post a note on its website expressing regret over the claim in a March 10 segment on "This Week" made by Stephanopoulos. They will also pay his legal fees as part of the settlement, which have totaled $1 million. A statement from the network said: 'ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC's This Week on March 10, 2024.' Trump had sued Stephanopoulos and the network for defamation soon after the segment aired. His lawyers accused Stephanopoulos of making the statements with 'malice' and a disregard for the truth.
Fox News
a day ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Paramount, CBS forced to pay eight-figures, change editorial policy in settlement with President Trump
Paramount Global and CBS agreed on Tuesday to pay President Donald Trump a sum that could reach north of $30 million to settle the president's election interference lawsuit against the network. Trump will receive $16 million upfront. This will cover legal fees, costs of the case, and contributions to his library or charitable causes, to be determined at Trump's discretion. There is an expectation that there will be another allocation in the mid-eight figures set aside for advertisements, public service announcements, or other similar transmissions, in support of conservative causes by the network, Fox News Digital has learned. Sources close to the situation told Fox News Digital that CBS has agreed to update its editorial standards to install a mandatory new rule. Going forward, the network will promptly release full, unedited transcripts of future presidential candidates' interviews. People involved in the settlement talks have referred to this as the "Trump Rule." Trump was seeking $20 billion in his lawsuit against CBS over its handling of a "60 Minutes" interview last year with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing the network of election interference leading up to the 2024 contest. CBS is not acknowledging any journalistic wrongdoing with the settlement. The lawsuit alleged CBS News deceitfully edited an exchange Harris had with "60 Minutes" correspondent Bill Whitaker, who asked her why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn't "listening" to the Biden administration. Harris was widely mocked for the "word salad" answer that aired in a preview clip of the interview on CBS' "Face the Nation." However, when the same question aired during a primetime special on the network, Harris had a different, more concise response. Critics at the time accused CBS News of deceitfully editing Harris' "word salad" answer to shield the Democratic nominee from further backlash leading up to Election Day. The raw transcript and footage released earlier this year by the FCC showed that both sets of Harris' comments came from the same response, but CBS News had aired only the first half of her response in the "Face the Nation" preview clip and aired the second half during the primetime special. CBS News had long denied any wrongdoing and stood by the broadcast and its reporting. Paramount and Trump's legal team had agreed to mediation designed to help the sides reach a settlement. It was widely believed that Paramount Global controlling shareholder Shari Redstone wanted to settle the suit ahead of a planned multi-billion-dollar merger with Skydance Media in hopes of preventing potential retribution by Trump's FCC, which has the authority to halt the transaction. Trump confidently declared the case against CBS a "winner" in April. "They cheated and defrauded the American People at levels never seen before in the Political Arena. Kamala Harris, during Early Voting and, immediately before Election Day, was asked a question, and gave an answer, that was so bad and incompetent that it would have cost her many of the Votes that she ended up getting," Trump posted on Truth Social ahead of mediation, going on to accuse the newsmagazine of perpetrating a fraud on the American people. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and eight Democratic colleagues sent a letter to Redstone in May asking her not to settle the lawsuit against CBS News, which they called an "attack on the First Amendment." They called the potential settlement a "grave mistake" and "a blatant attempt to intimidate the media and those who speak out against him, President Trump." The letter also stated "presidents do not get to punish or censor the media for criticizing them" in the United States. Earlier this year, FCC Chair Brendan Carr ordered CBS News to hand over the unedited transcript as part of its probe into whether the network violated the FCC's "news distortion" policy after a complaint was filed. CBS had refused to release the unedited transcript until the FCC got involved. Trump's attorneys amended their lawsuit to include multiple excerpts from the unedited transcript in hopes of bolstering their case that CBS News withheld unflattering exchanges in order to help the Democratic nominee. The saga emerged as a distraction inside CBS News and longtime "60 Minutes" executive producer Bill Owens walked away from the job in April because he wasn't able to make the "independent decisions" needed for the program to thrive. Owens, who had insisted CBS did nothing wrong with the Harris edit, was vehemently against offering any sort of apology to the president. CBS News President and CEO Wendy McMahon, who is believed to have been against settling with Trump, announced on May 19 that she was stepping down in another stunning move for the embattled company. "It's become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward. It's time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership," McMahon told staffers in a memo that was obtained by Fox News Digital. ABC also settled a defamation lawsuit in December with then-President-elect Trump for $15 million, after anchor George Stephanopoulos repeatedly and incorrectly asserted Trump had been found "liable for rape" in a civil trial last year.
