Free speech advocates in the US on Wednesday blasted the $16 million settlement that Paramount Global secured with President Donald Trump’s legal team, going so far as to describe the president’s demand for retribution for coverage he didn’t like as “extortion.”
Earlier this year, Trump sued the holding company that owns CBS News and its flagship television news magazine, “60 Minutes” (created in 1968), over what he claimed was preferential treatment in an interview and in the editing process toward his 2024 political opponent, Kamala Harris.
“The lawsuit is just as frivolous today as it was yesterday, there’s zero substance to it,” Bob Corn-Revere, chief counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told Politico. “All this really shows is that sometimes, a bully can get his way.”
“We’re not privy to anything that went on behind closed doors, but it appears to be extortion in plain sight,” he said.
Politico also reported that, in May, “the Freedom of the Press Foundation — which says it is a Paramount shareholder — pledged to file a lawsuit if the settlement went through. It would allow shareholders to recoup damages from harm to Paramount ‘that has been caused to it by misconduct of its officers and directors,’ Seth Stern, director of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in an interview Wednesday.”
Paramount Global requires federal approval from the Trump administration for its proposed $8 billion merger with Skydance Media, which is why many critics of the settlement have described the $16 million as a bribe, at worst, or appeasement of a vindictive presidential litigant at best.
Trump has cracked down on those press outlets that do not fawn over his remarks or policies. Numerous outlets have paid the price across the board: Journalists from CNN and the Associated Press, for example, have been censured at White House briefings.
In April, the producer of “60 Minutes,” Bill Owen, said he was stepping down because “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.”
The settlement has also raised the eyebrows of several sitting senators on Capitol Hill, who have proposed the idea that Paramount “may be engaging in potentially illegal conduct.”
One of the senators, Ron Wyden (D-OR), said he will be “first in line calling for federal charges.”