Scott Pelley, Lesley Stahl, Other ‘60 Minutes’ Stars Blast Looming Settlement of Trump’s $20 Billion Lawsuit Amid Reports an Agreement Is Near

The stars of CBS’s “60 Minutes” are again signaling their displeasure with the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, and its efforts to settle President Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit over a controversial edit of an interview Vice President Harris gave to the venerable newsmagazine program as the company seeks to complete its merger with Skydance Media. The seven stars of “60 Minutes” — Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, Bill Whitaker, Anderson Cooper, Sharyn Alfonsi, Jon Wertheim, and Cecilia Vega — sent a letter to three co-executives of Paramount — George Cheeks, Brian Robbins, and Chris McCarthy — warning about a settlement, a left-wing media journalist, Oliver Darcy, reported in his “Status” newsletter. In the letter, the stars said CBS has made mistakes over the years, which they said the network has corrected, according to Mr. Darcy. However, Mr. Darcy wrote, “They added, when they are factually correct, they must defend themselves from attack.”“Then the group dropped the hammer,” Mr. Darcy said. “They said Trump’s allegations against the storied program are false and ripped his lawsuit as baseless. And they warned in no uncertain terms that if Paramount were to settle with Trump, it will stain the reputation of the company and undermine the First Amendment.”President Trump is suing CBS for $20 billion over how it edited its interview with Kamala Harris. CBS Mr. Darcy reports that the stars have “moved to engage with their bosses in private, and I’m told even made a pact against leaking information about their efforts to the press.” Nevertheless, he’d been fully briefed on the contents of the letter. CBS News did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication. The report on the letter comes as a new court filing says that Paramount and the president’s legal team are “engaged in good faith, advanced settlement negotiations” and asked to delay proceedings until Thursday, a sign the two sides could be close to reaching a settlement deal.Paramount has been trying to settle Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, which he filed against CBS Inc. over the editing of Ms. Harris’s October 2024 “60 Minutes” interview, which removed a “word salad” from the beginning of her answer to a question about Israel and made her sound more coherent. CBS has defended the editing and said the change was made for time and concision purposes. Mr. Trump says it caused him “mental anguish” and could have cost him the election, as it came at a crucial time when Ms. Harris was facing scrutiny over her lack of interviews with serious journalists and over the difficulties she encountered when she tried to speak off the cuff about important matters. Lawyers for CBS have derided the lawsuit as “meritless” and tried and failed, repeatedly, to have it dismissed or moved from a Texas courtroom to a venue where they likely believe the jury would be more favorable to the media, such as New York City. The stars of ’60 Minutes’ have sent a letter to senior management demanding that their choice be coronated as executive producer of the program. Paramount GlobalHowever, executives at Paramount, CBS’s parent company, believe settling Mr. Trump’s lawsuit is the key to winning approval for the Skydance deal from the Federal Communications Commission, which has to approve the acquisition, according to numerous reports. The Trump-appointed chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, has said the lawsuit is unrelated to the Skydance deal, yet the commission is conducting a news distortion investigation of Harris’ interview, and the deal has been held up.As Paramount executives have tried to resolve the lawsuit without further provoking Mr. Trump, they have reportedly taken steps that have irked the newsroom and the stars of “60 Minutes.” The non-executive chairwoman of Paramount, Shari Redstone, reportedly asked the program to hold off on anti-Trump stories until after the Skydance deal was approved. “60 Minutes” ended its season with weekly anti-Trump stories, including attacking his cutbacks to foreign aid and the actions he’s taken to pull government work from liberal law firms that did pro bono work to block his administration’s policies. “60 Minutes” also came under scrutiny for broadcasting two anti-Israel segments, which reportedly angered Ms. Redstone, leading her to ask for closer supervision of whether “60 Minutes” was adhering to CBS News guidelines for editorial standards and practices. In April, the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” Bill Owens, resigned under pressure, stating that he had lost the ability to make independent decisions for the show. And in May, the former head of CBS News and Stations, Wendy McMahon, resigned, saying she disagreed with her bosses on the way forward. However, Puck’s Dylan Byers reported she was fired as executives were disappointed with her overall job performance — not just her reported resistance to settling Mr. Trump’s lawsuit — but was allowed to resign to save face. The CEO of CBS, George Cheeks, the chairwoman of Paramount Global, Shari Redstone, and the president of Showtime and MTV, Chris McCarthy. Noam Galai/Getty Images for ParamountMr. Pelley and Ms. Stahl, the biggest names on the “60 Minutes” roster, have already been vocal in their opposition to a settlement.After Mr. Owens’s resignation, Mr. Pelley delivered a rare on-air rebuke of Paramount executives as he connected the executive producer’s ouster to Mr. Trump’s lawsuit. He also denounced Mr. Trump in a fiery commencement address this spring at Wake Forest University. He then appeared on CNN on the occasion of its airing of the play “Good Night and Good Luck,” about a legendary CBS News host, Edward R. Murrow. Mr. Pelley told his interviewer, Mr. Cooper, that settling Mr. Trump’s lawsuit would be “very damaging” for CBS News.Ms. Stahl was interviewed on “The New Yorker Radio Hour” and said she was “angry” with Ms. Redstone for her efforts to settle Mr. Trump’s lawsuit. (Ms. Redstone is believed to have been a major driver of a settlement, but has since recused herself from such conversations.)Ms. Stahl told her interviewer that Mr. Owens’s resignation was a “punch in the stomach.”CBS News has been denounced by President Trump for its editing of the ’60 Minutes’ Kamala Harris interview. CBS News“Everybody at ‘60 Minutes’ — I think everybody … most of us — really appreciated his standing up to the pressure and saw him in heroic terms. So, when he announced that he was stepping down, it was a punch in the stomach. It was one of those punches where you almost can’t breathe,’ Ms. Stahl said.Mr. Darcy reported last week that all seven “60 Minutes” correspondents also sent a letter to Mr. Cheeks asking that Tanya Simon, the daughter of a longtime CBS correspondent, Bob Simon, be named the executive producer of “60 Minutes.”Ms. Simon has been working as the interim executive producer since Mr. Owens’s departure, and oversaw the series of anti-Trump segments that finished out the “60 Minutes” season that ended in May (the show is now in reruns until the fall). The stars’ decision to ask that Ms. Simon be given the permanent position signals they believe she will stand up to pressure from the top brass, and, crucially, it is believed she would not willingly offer an apology for the Harris interview. Mr. Trump’s legal team has been believed to be conditioning a settlement on an apology for the Harris interview (in addition to an eight-figure payment). The network has issued apologies for other stories that turned out to be wrong, such as in 2004 when Dan Rather issued an on-air apology for running a story that falsely attacked President Bush’s National Guard service.President Trump denounces CBS News in a conversation with Dan Bongino. RumbleIn the case of the Harris interview, CBS insists it did nothing wrong. And in a move that could derail negotiations over a settlement, Paramount “isn’t prepared” to issue an apology, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.Whether Mr. Trump’s team is still demanding an apology is unclear. An attorney for Mr. Trump did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment. The Journal reported that the mediator in the lawsuit proposed a $20 million settlement deal, with $17 million going to Mr. Trump’s presidential foundation and “millions more” going to cover legal fees. The deal would also require Paramount to run public service announcements about combating antisemitism. That report came after a columnist for the New York Post, Charles Gasparino, reported that a $35 million settlement was “delayed” because Paramount’s executives “continued to fear a potential legal backlash.”However, in a sign that the two sides may be close to reaching a deal to settle the lawsuit, attorneys for the president and Paramount said they are “engaged in good faith, advanced settlement negotiations,” and asked for a delay in court proceedings until Thursday. Tanya Simon, executive editor of ’60 Minutes’ and daughter of a CBS News legend, Bob Simon, has been acting executive producer since the exit of Bill Owens. CBS NewsThe filing seems to suggest that the two parties are close to settling. Paramount is scheduled to hold a meeting on Wednesday to elect three new board members, who would have to approve any settlement after their election. However, that could complicate matters as there has been growing pressure on Paramount from left-wing groups not to settle, and to warn of potential legal action. Multiple reports have indicated that Paramount executives are “paralyzed” by concerns that a settlement could be seen as a bribe, which could potentially expose them to criminal investigations and charges. Yet, the looming deadlines of Paramount’s shareholder meeting and a July 7 deadline to finalize the Skydance deal, which would automatically be extended one more time until October 7, could be putting pressure on board members to finalize a deal and avoid a potential nightmare scenario for Paramount.

Scott Pelley, Lesley Stahl, Other ‘60 Minutes’ Stars Blast Looming Settlement of Trump’s $20 Billion Lawsuit Amid Reports an Agreement Is Near

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