The audiovisual giant Paramount has agreed to pay the president of the United States, 16 million dollars to resolve his demand for the edition of an interview in the mythical program 60 Minutesof CBS News, according to the company this Tuesday night. It is an extraordinary concession to a acting president by an important media organization, in an unknown context of.
Paramount indicated that his payment includes Trump’s legal fees and costs and that money, except legal fees, will go to the future presidential library of the Republican, a typical legacy of all former presidents of the country.
As part of the agreement, the company also agreed to publish the transcripts of the interviews of 60 Minutes With elected American presidential candidates after their broadcast, subject to the necessary modifications for legal reasons or national security. The agreement does not include an apology, informs .
Many lawyers dismissed Trump’s demand for unfounded and believed that CBS would finally win in court, partly because the chain did not report anything “factually inaccurate”, and the first amendment gives editors a wide margin of maneuver to determine how to present information.
However, Shari Redstone, president and majority shareholder of Paramount, declared before his board of directors that he was in favor of exploring an agreement with Trump. Some firm executives considered the president’s demand as a possible obstacle to complete the company’s multimillionaire sale to Hollywood Skydance, which requires the approval of the administration.
The sale would end the control that the Redstone family exercised for decades about CBS News and Paramount Pictures and put it in the hands of David Ellison, son of Larry Ellison, a technological billionaire that has backed Trump. Brendan Carr, president of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has declared that the president’s demand against Paramount is not related to the review of the FCC of the company’s fusion with Skydance. Paramount has also declared that both issues are not related.
In the writing of CBS, a possible agreement was considered a “low point” in the history of almost a century of the chain that housed Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow, whose famous rejection of macartism in the 1950s was recently represented on Broadway by George Clooney. 60 Minutespioneer of live research journalism, recently completed its 51st consecutive season as the country’s most watched news program.
CBS is not the first news division to make an important concession to Trump. In December, ABC News paid 16 million dollars more to resolve a defamation lawsuit filed by Trump against the chain and one of its presenters, George Stephanopoulos. Mr. Trump sued Paramount for 10 billion dollars last year, claiming that “60 minute” deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris to interfere with the elections.
The origin of the shock
The transcription of the interview showed that the presidency Democratic candidate and then vice president of the country, Harris, gave a long answer to a question about, the prime minister of Israel. Approximately 21 seconds of that response were issued in an advance of the interview in Face the Nationanother CBS News program. A different part of seven seconds of the response was issued the next day in an episode during the stellar time of 60 Minutes.
Trump stated in his demand that CBS’s actions constituted a “news distortion” whose objective was to tip the balance in favor of the Democratic Party. Paramount questioned that description. Even before its resolution, Trump’s demand – and Redstone’s apparent provision to consider an agreement – had plunged CBS News in chaos. The tensions within the chain on how to handle the president’s legal attacks contributed to the resignation of the executive producer of the affected space, Bill Owens; The president of CBS News, Wendy McMahon, was subsequently forced to resign.
By observing the development of the case with Trump, many CBS journalists believed that long -term credibility of 60 Minutes I was at stake. Scott Pelley, the veteran correspondent, declared last month that any agreement would be “very harmful to CBS, for Paramount and for the reputation of these companies.”
CBS and Paramount executives examined the segments of 60 Minutes that could be interpreted as critics with the Trump administration. CBS News has not canceled any news for the pressure, but Owens, when resigning in April, declared that “it would not be allowed to” make independent journalistic decisions. McMahon declared the company that “it was clear that the company and I do not agree on the way to follow.”
Redstone communicated to the Board of Directors that it was challenged to participate in the discussions on how to handle Trump’s demand, given that their financial participation in the pending agreement with Skydance is much greater than that of other shareholders, whose interest is expected to represent the directors. This spring was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and has recently been receiving treatment.
However, even before his diagnosis, he told the Board members that he wanted the company to explore an agreement with Trump. Redstone has declared that he wants to avoid a prolonged legal war with the president who could cost hundreds of millions of dollars and endanger other divisions that have commercial relations with the government.
Redstone has also expressed to its relatives its concern about the editorial criteria of CBS News. He has acknowledged being worried on the part of the informative coverage of his chain and, sometimes, has publicly expressed his concerns and has spoken with the corporate direction.
Senators such as Massachusetts, and, of Vermont, have warned that any Paramount’s payment to Mr. Trump could be interpreted as a bribe, and said they would consider holding a audience in Congress in this regard.
The possibility of being accused of bribery, and possibly facing legal actions, therefore, had irritated the directors of Paramount, who had to weigh the corporate benefits of an agreement against the perception that they were giving green light to an agreement to ensure an unrelated fusion.
The Foundation for Press Freedom, a defending group of the first amendment, has declared that it plans to file a lawsuit on behalf of the shareholders against Mrs. Redstone and the Board of Directors of Paramount in case of reaching an agreement; The group has hired the leading litigator Abbe Lowell for their work. The agreement occurred less than a day before Paramount planned to make changes in its Board of Directors, a change that could have complicated the negotiations of the agreement. Judith Mchale, director with extensive career, leaves the position, and the company plans to incorporate three new directors: Mary Boies, advisor to the Boies Schiller Flexner firm; Charles E. Ryan, co -founder of Almaz Capital; and Roanne Sragow Licht, attached professor at Boston University.
