LOS ANGELES (OC).–Settling with 79-year-old President Donald Trump for $16 million, Paramount Global, parent company of CBS News, acquiesced due to uncertain legal costs and reputational damage to end a controversial lawsuit over CBS’s “60 Minutes” handling of a transcript of former Vice President Kamala Harris interviewed at the end of the 2024 campaign. When the transcript of the interview was produced, it showed rather extreme editing on a question about Israel’s war in Gaza, something former executive editor Bill Owens said was commonplace. But Trump lawyers said it was anything but commonplace, a clear example of CBS News Democrat bias trying to tip the scales to get Kamala elected in 2024. CBS News staff express “widespread distress,” blaming the settlement of Parmount Global Chairwoman Shari Redstone trying to complete an FCC merger with Skydance Media.
Last December ABC News entered into settlement with Trump for $15 million over ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos claiming on air that Trump was found liable for rape in the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit. Whether there’s any equivalency or not, Stephanopoulos let his hatred of Trump get out of hand, costing ABC News $15 million. “With two major network owners bowing to the president in quick succession, the danger is clear: emboldened politicians and powerful actors will fell more free than ever to weaponize lawsuits and bring regulatory pressure to bear to silence and censor independent journalism,” said Tim Richardson at PEN AMERICA. Richardson talks about weaponizing lawsuits but what about weaponizing journalism against Republicans? If Democrat media bias wasn’t so ubiguitous in journalism, they wouldn’t have these problems.
Trump’s lawsuit says nothing about muzzling independent journalism, it’s about egregious media bias at the biggest corporate newsrooms in the country. Journalists work for major corporate players like CBS, ABC, NBC and spinoffs like MSNBC or CNN, trying to pretend neutrality or nonpartisan reporting but clearly have a Democrat bias. CBS News “60 Minutes” got into trouble by altering Kamala’s response to a simple question to make her look coherent. She was described during the 2024, even by liberal journalists, as spewing “word salad” in response to simple questions. CBS News “60 Minutes” can pretend they did nothing wrong but they literally rewrote a recorded transcript to make Kamala look coherent. “This is the latest attempt by the Administration to damage the country’s institutions and encroach upon the the rights granted to the people under the First Amendment,” said Steve Kroft.
Kroft, a former “60 Minutes” journalist, called the settlement a “travesty,” turning upside down the main argument made by Trump’s lawyers. Trump’s lawyers argued that CBS’s bias against Trump led to the alteration in the transcript to advantage Kamala. How does holding CBS accountable for subterfuge damage the First Amendment? If anything, it protects the First Amendment by holding journalists to a higher standard of political neutrality. “A cowardly capitulation by the corporate leaders of Paramount, and a fundamental betrayal of ‘60 Minutes’ and CBS New,” said Rome Hartman, one of the producers of the Kamala segment. Hartman wants to blame CBS’s parent company but wants to take no responsibility for dealing from the bottom of the deck. Hartman needs to take responsibility for not disclosing alteration to Kamala’s CBS interview.
Trump forced ABC News and now CBS to be accountable for egregious media bias. When it comes to Stephanopoulos, he new better and still said disparaging things about Trump. But for CBS News “60 Minutes” they’ve had such a long history of news monopoly, they think they can get away with anything. If anything, they hide behind the First Amendment to spread Democrat political bias in news reports. They take whatever liberties they have to advance a Democrat agenda and Democrat candidates. When Trump called them out as fake news, they didn’t like it, but the settlement is actually an admission of egregious media bias. Whether FCC Chairman approves the Paramount merger with Skydance media is anyone’s guess. But certainly the $16 million settlement sends a loud message to media organizations that Democrat bias is not OK in political reporting.
CBS and ABC News are embarrassed by getting caught red handed engage in egregious media bias and paying the price for it. Corporate leaders must let journalists know they can’t simply express their political bias in news reports, simply because they can. “Today is a sad day for press freedom,” said Jameet Jaffer, executive director of Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. “Now Trump’s presidential library will be a permanent monument to Paramount surrender, a continual reminder of its failure to defend freedoms that are essential to our democracy,” said Jaffer. Does Jaffer think it’s OK for journalists to advance a Democrats political agenda in their writing? How does that help democracy if journalists express political bias in their journalism? Trump’s settlement is a small price to pay to keep political bias out of future journalism.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
