UPDATED, with John Dickerson comments: The news that Paramount Global will settle Donald Trump‘s 60 Minutes lawsuit for $16 million certainly did not come as a shock to staffers at CBS News.
For months, there has been a great deal of consternation and even resignation at the prospect of a settlement and the impact that it would have on the news division.
“People are not surprised but also disappointed,” one CBS News staffer said on Wednesday. “There is hope that if the Skydance deal goes through, that could be a fresh start.”
John Dickerson, co-anchor of the CBS Evening News, ended the broadcast with a monologue that touched on viewers’ trust. “The Paramount settlement poses a new obstacle. Can you hold power to account after paying it millions? Can an audience trust you when it thinks you’ve traded away that trust? The audience will decide that. Our job is to show up, to honor what we witness on behalf of the people we witness it for.”
CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, in the morning editorial call on Wednesday, noted that the settlement did not include an apology, while urging his team to move forward, per a source. In its announcement of the settlement, Paramount Global also emphasized that there was no apology, as did CBS President and CEO George Cheeks.
RELATED: Elizabeth Warren Says Paramount’s Trump Lawsuit Settlement “Could Be Bribery In Plain Sight,” Plans Bill To Restrict Presidential Library Donations
Over the past few months, CBS News staffers have had a great deal of consternation over a pending settlement, a prospect that was out of their control. Talks were occurring at the corporate level and having much to do with the circumstances of the pending Paramount Global merger with Skydance Media. Some staffers also have seen the whole affair as obscuring standout work in the news division, particularly in the early months of the Trump administration.
In the aftermath, a succession of press freedom groups and other organizations have blasted Paramount Global’s decision. Trump sued the network over an Oct. 7 60 Minutes interview with his 2024 rival Kamala Harris, claiming that it was intentionally edited to make her look better and boost her electoral chances. CBS News called the lawsuit meritless, and said that there was no deception, and released the transcript in February.
RELATED: Paramount Global Blasted For Settling Donald Trump’s ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit: “Threatens Journalists’ Ability To Do Their Job,” WGAE Says
The network published a story about the settlement early Wednesday morning, quoting legal experts who saw the lawsuit as frivolous. Trump claimed a violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, typically used in false advertising and product claims.
They included Geoffrey R. Stone, law professor at the University of Chicago, who told the network, “That statute is about sales — a salesperson can be held liable for stating that a product has certain positive effects when he knows it doesn’t. But CBS is not engaged in advertising here.”
Within CBS News, there has been some second guessing about how the whole situation could have been handled differently, including that 60 Minutes could have released the transcript of the interview with Kamala Harris much earlier, as some other news organizations routinely do.
The settlement did include an agreement that in the future, 60 Minutes “will release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after such interviews have aired, subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.”
RELATED: Trump Celebrity Supporters: Famous Folks In Favor Of The 47th President
As some staffers look to get beyond the whole affair, the legal and corporate aspects are not actually over. A conservative group, the Center for American Rights, filed an FCC complaint over the 60 Minutes broadcast under the agency’s news distortion policy. But that has been rarely invoked in the past and under the narrowest of circumstances, while First Amendment attorneys say that the network would have a strong case should it ever come to a fine or other sanction.
There is also the merger itself. The FCC passed an informal, 180-day timeline to review the deal, and Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, has not said when a decision will be rendered. His spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Unclear is what the ultimate impact that the settlement will have on CBS News, whether that be reputation or ratings. Bill Owens, the executive producer of 60 Minutes, exited the network in April, he said that he no longer make independent decisions about the show. The newsmagazine is consistently a top ratings getter for the network, drawing an average of 8.32 million viewers in its 57th season. As the wrangling over the Skydance-Paramount merger dragged on, the show did a number of hard-hitting pieces on the Trump administration, to the point where the president threatened to file another lawsuit. That potential defamation action also was part of the settlement agreement, per Paramount Global.
