CBS owner Paramount reportedly intends to settle Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit do sex sex to

Apr, 30 2025 20:26 PM

Payoff CBS owner Paramount reportedly intends to settle Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit Lawsuit seen as frivolous, but Paramount needs FCC approval for Skydance merger. Jon Brodkin – Apr 30, 2025 1:27 pm | 85 CBS Broadcast Center in New York on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. Credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg CBS Broadcast Center in New York on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. Credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav CBS owner Paramount is reportedly nearing a settlement with President Donald Trump over his claim that 60 Minutes "deceptively manipulated" a pre-election interview with Kamala Harris. Trump's complaint, filed against Paramount and CBS in a federal court in Texas, seeks at least $20 billion in damages. The lawsuit has been widely described as frivolous, but it appears that Paramount is motivated to settle the case while it seeks the Trump administration's approval for a merger with Skydance. Reports published yesterday by the Los Angeles Times and New York Times say that Paramount is ready to settle. "In an April 18 meeting, the Paramount board outlined acceptable financial terms for a potential settlement with the president, according to three people with knowledge of the internal discussions," the NYT wrote. "The exact dollar amounts remain unclear, but the board's move clears a path for an out-of-court resolution." The Paramount board "acted to provide clear guidance to lawyers who will be representing them during the mediation process," the Los Angeles Times wrote. With mediation sessions set to begin today, the newspaper said its sources indicate "the company is eager to put the 60 Minutes controversy behind it so that it can move forward with its sale to David Ellison's Skydance Media." To complete the merger, Paramount needs Federal Communications Commission approval to transfer TV broadcast station licenses to Skydance. The Biden-era FCC dismissed a complaint filed by a conservative group against CBS about the Harris interview, but Chairman Brendan Carr revived that complaint a couple of days after Trump appointed him to lead the commission. “A payoff to the president” Carr is using the FCC's rarely enforced news distortion policy to investigate CBS and has said the probe is a factor in the FCC's review of the Paramount/Skydance merger. While the complaint and merger review are ostensibly separate from Trump's lawsuit against Paramount and CBS, it wouldn't be surprising if a settlement with Trump helps Paramount in both FCC proceedings. "[Paramount] Board members are cognizant that a huge settlement could be viewed as something of a payoff to the president to move the Skydance merger over the finish line, knowledgeable sources have said," the Los Angeles Times wrote. Carr reportedly said this week that "the settlement and any discussions around that have nothing to do with the work that we're doing at the FCC." In a statement provided to Ars today, Paramount said the "lawsuit is completely separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process. We will abide by the legal process to defend our case." As we've described previously, the allegations being examined by the FCC don't appear to meet the agency's historical standard for determining that a news station intentionally distorted the news. The complaint to the FCC and Trump's lawsuit both focus on how CBS aired two different answers given by Harris to the same question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one on 60 Minutes and the other on Face the Nation. But CBS provided an unedited transcript and camera feeds of the interview that show that the two answers were just two different sentences from the same response. While in court filings Paramount defended CBS's First Amendment rights over editorial content, 60 Minutes Executive Producer Bill Owens resigned last week and alleged that he had lost editorial independence. Owens reportedly told staff in a memo that "over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience." This past weekend, journalist Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes criticized Paramount in an unusual on-air segment. "Our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger," Pelley said. "The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires. No one here is happy about it. But in resigning, Bill proved one thing: He was the right person to lead 60 Minutes all along." Jon Brodkin Senior IT Reporter Jon Brodkin Senior IT Reporter Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. 85 Comments

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