Sad Lesley Stahl and Fellow ‘60 Minutes’ Stars Express ‘Dismay’ at ‘Capitulation to Trump’ in Teary-Eyed Zoom About Settlement: Report

Lesley Stahl and other disheartened stars of CBS News’s “60 Minutes” assembled for an emotional, virtual meeting to discuss the decision by its parent company, Paramount Global, to settle President Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit, according to a published report. This comes as the producer of the interview with Vice President Harris that was the subject of Mr. Trump’s lawsuit lashed out at Paramount for settling the suit.Paramount announced late Tuesday that it had agreed to pay $16 million to settle Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, in which he claimed that the October 2024 Harris interview was deceptively edited to make her look coherent. News of the settlement sent shockwaves through the network and sparked an uproar among liberal journalists and lawmakers who cast the deal as a “bribe” to win approval from the FCC of Paramount’s crucial and long-delayed merger with Skydance Media. Paramount and the chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, have publicly denied that the Trump lawsuit is linked to the Skydance merger, but multiple published reports, including in the Wall Street Journal, said that privately, Paramount executives believed they had to settle the lawsuit before the merger would win approval. (The FCC is currently doing a “news distortion” probe of CBS News over the Harris interview, and so the issue is formally on its radar.)On Wednesday, a co-executive of Paramount, George Cheeks, told shareholders the company settled to avoid the “unpredictable cost of a legal defense” and potential “reputational harm.”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 GlobalAfter the settlement was announced, the stars of “60 Minutes” assembled for what was described by a far-left media reporter, Oliver Darcy, as a “hastily arranged” Zoom meeting with the new president of CBS News, Tom Cibrowski, who has nominal oversight of “60 Minutes” (which has long ignored any guidance from CBS News management), and the interim executive producer of the program, Tanya Simon.Ms. Simon told the stars she only learned of the settlement when it was announced, but emphasized that the company did not offer an apology or statement of regret. However, the lack of an apology apparently did not do much to make the stars feel better. Mr. Darcy reported that correspondent Bill Whitaker “spoke first and was quite somber,” and seemed to be “teary-eyed as he spoke about the institution he loves.”Mr. Whitaker was the journalist who interviewed Ms. Harris and asked her the fateful question that led to an inscrutable, circuitous answer about Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel’s war against Hamas. The program removed the first portion of her response, which critics said was a “word salad,” and the editing made her answer sound more coherent, which prompted Mr. Trump’s lawsuit. CBS has defended the editing, saying it was done for time and concision purposes. However, Mr. Trump says it caused him “mental anguish” and could have cost him the 2024 election. CBS News has been denounced by President Trump for its editing of the ’60 Minutes’ interview with Vice President Harris. CBS NewsMeanwhile, two other “60 Minutes” stars, Lesley Stahl and Sharyn Alfonsi, expressed “deep frustration and dismay that the company had capitulated to Trump, handing him millions to settle a lawsuit widely regarded across the legal community as absurd,” according to Mr. Darcy’s report.An unnamed staffer chimed in, “The concern is what happens next.”“Is this it? Or [does Skydance] say we are going to bring a new person in and start tinkering around with this show?” the staffer said, adding that if the latter happened, “The institution could unravel.”Left out of Mr. Darcy’s report was any comment from one of the “60 Minutes” correspondents who has been the most outspoken over the last few months, Scott Pelley. 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 ParamountIn April, Mr. Pelley delivered a rare on-air rebuke of Paramount executives as he linked the forced ouster of the former executive producer of “60 Minutes,” Bill Owens, to the Skydance deal. Later, Mr. Pelley delivered a commencement address at Wake Forest University during which he criticized the president for bringing lawsuits against media companies “for nothing.”In June, he 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, Anderson Cooper, that settling Mr. Trump’s lawsuit would be “very damaging” for CBS News.(On Thursday, CNN’s Brian Stelter, in his CNN newsletter, called the settlement “a sign of budding authoritarianism.”) Mr. Pelley also signed on to a letter with the other “60 Minutes” correspondents that was (also according to Mr. Darcy) sent to Paramount executives, warning against settling Mr. Trump’s lawsuit. The new format of the ‘CBS Evening News,’ co-anchored by John Dickerson, is failing to connect with viewers. CBS News“If our parent company caves in to his pressure and lies, it will leave a shameful stain and undermine the First Amendment,” the letter said. A co-anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” John Dickerson, spoke out about the settlement at the end of the evening newscast. He said Paramount “decided to settle the suit it said is without basis in law and fact, and an affront to the First Amendment.”He provided an even more stinging rebuke of the decision during an online-only segment, when he delivered a monologue about the work the staff at CBS does to produce the news. “The obstacles to getting it right are many. 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,” Mr. Dicerkson said. President Trump denounces CBS News in a conversation with Dan Bongino. RumbleThe lead producer of the Harris interview, Rome Hartman, is also speaking out against the settlement. “This settlement is a cowardly capitulation by the corporate leaders of Paramount, and a fundamental betrayal of ‘60 Minutes’ and CBS News,” Mr. Hartman told Fox News Digital. He said the interview was “edited by the book and in accordance with CBS News standards.”“[Paramount knows] that this lawsuit is completely baseless. But they settled it in order to preserve Shari Redstone’s payday. That is shameful,” Mr. Hartman said. Rome Hartman, the lead producer of Vice President Harris’s ’60 Minutes’ interview, denounced the settlement. NBC NewsMr. Hartman may feel free to speak out as he announced his retirement earlier this year. He says he is retiring due to his age (he said he was turning 70), not the Trump lawsuit.While several staffers have made it clear that they strongly disagree with the idea of settling, and Mr. Darcy reported earlier this week that they are “seriously considering their future at the program,” it remains to be seen whether any will actually follow through and stand up for the principles they espouse and resign. It is unlikely that another network would pay the hosts similar salaries, as multiple networks are seeking to cut costs and wages. Deadline cited an unnamed CBS News staffer who said that the news division is “disappointed” but also cautiously optimistic about the future if the Skydance deal is approved and the deal goes through. CBS News did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Sad Lesley Stahl and Fellow ‘60 Minutes’ Stars Express ‘Dismay’ at ‘Capitulation to Trump’ in Teary-Eyed Zoom About Settlement: Report

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