Trump's Media War Part 3: CBS Attack Owners 'Lawsuit Settlement' FCC Investigation Intervention
The controversy over the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) intervention is growing as the owner of CBS, which the Trump administration attacked as the third part of the media war, has reached a Lawsuit Settlement.
In the presidential election, President Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS for editing the interview with Democratic candidate Harris on '60 Minutes', and after being elected, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr, who was appointed after being elected, attempted to 'investigate' the editing of the interview with Vice President Harris, and his daughter, the Paramount heiress who owns CBS, entered into an agreement with the Trump administration.
Regarding the progress of the agreement, the New York Times reported on the 30th that "three people familiar with the talks said that agreement discussions between Paramount representatives and President Trump are currently underway," and "two people familiar with the thoughts of Paramount's controlling shareholder Shari Redstone strongly support the efforts to reach an agreement." The two companies that settled the lawsuits that pressured the press under the Trump administration were ABC and Meta, with settlement amounts of $15 million and $25 million, respectively.
ABC News paid $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by Trump against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos for falsely claiming that Trump had been “accused of rape” in a civil trial in New York.
Trump’s lawsuit, on the other hand, found that Trump was responsible for sexual abuse of women he had sexual relations with, and the company “settled” after Trump was elected.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on the 29th that it had settled a lawsuit filed by Trump against the social network for blocking Trump’s account in 2021 for $25 million. Meta owner Zuckerberg announced the settlement on a call with investors on Meta's quarterly earnings call that day, saying, "The Trump administration is supporting American technology companies and defending our values," and "This year will be an important year for reestablishing our relationship with the government."
ABC agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by Trump on December 14 last year.
The New York Times said on the day, "The settlement was a significant concession for a major news organization and a rare victory for a politician who has often lost previous lawsuits against news organizations." "The outcome is an unusual victory for President Trump, who has frequently sued and lost defamation lawsuits against CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post."
The New York Times continued, "Under the terms of the settlement, which was disclosed, ABC News will donate $15 million to Trump's Future Presidents Foundation and museum, and the network and star anchor George Stephanopoulos will also In a March broadcast interview, he issued a statement saying he “regrets” his comments about Trump.
ABC News, owned by the Walt Disney Company, will pay an additional $1 million to former President Trump in attorney fees.
The New York Times reported that CBS owner Redstone, who is currently in the process of settling, “will liquidate billions of dollars by selling Paramount, the media empire founded by Redstone’s father, Sumner Redstone, through a deal with Skydance, an entertainment company backed by billionaire Larry Ellison and run by his son David.” “Now that Trump is back in the White House, many executives at Paramount, the parent company of CBS, believe that settling the lawsuit will make it more likely that the Trump administration will not block or delay a multibillion-dollar merger with another company,” several people familiar with the matter said, referring to the agreement with the Trump regime for a “merger.” In an interview aired in October of last year on “60 Minutes,”
CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker asked Harris about the Middle East conflict, and a preview of the interview aired on CBS’s Sunday morning program “Face the Nation” showed Harris giving a different answer than she did in the interview that aired the following evening on “60 Minutes.”
The Trump campaign accused “60 Minutes” of using more consistent quotes from Harris to air in prime time in an effort to drum up support for her candidacy. CBS News responded that Harris had given a lengthy response to Whitaker’s question, and that the network followed “standard journalistic practice” of airing other parts of Harris’s answer in prime time due to time constraints. CBS News said in a statement in October of last year that “the Harris interview was not fabricated. Nothing was hidden,” and that Trump’s lawsuit was “completely without merit.”
Trump’s civil suit at the time cleverly relied on a Texas law interpretation that “prohibits deceptive trade practices, such as marketing a product to consumers.”
The New York Times reported that “among other objections to the suit, CBS lawyers noted that Trump’s grounds for suing in Texas were tenuous at best,” and that “regardless of the merits of the suit, the Trump administration is wielding leverage and needs the blessing of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to complete its planned merger with Skydance, since Paramount owns the broadcast license.” The Trump administration immediately approached CBS News with the request of Brendan Carr, who was nominated to be the chairman of the FCC, to “hand over the unedited transcript” of the interview with Vice President Harris, and the CBS newsroom previously refused to release the transcript requested by former President Trump’s legal team, calling it an “infringement on programming rights.” The popular news show “60 Minutes” in the United States continued to clash with the Trump camp.
The Times said, “President Trump’s demonization of the news media is central to his political rise, and he has clashed repeatedly with the nation’s most popular television news show, “60 Minutes,” and he declined to be interviewed by the program during last year’s presidential campaign.”
In 2020, the former president became irritated by Lesley Stahl’s questions and stopped an interview, which was posted online without filtering footage. CBS also investigated Redstone, the host, who clashed with CBS executives over a story featuring State Department officials expressing doubts about the Biden administration’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas. The day after the show aired, the network appointed Susan Zirinsky, a longtime CBS News producer, as interim editor-in-chief, responsible for overseeing journalistic standards and practices.