Trump Threatens New York Times With Legal Action for Its ‘Fake’ Coverage of His ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit as CBS’s Parent Company Prepares To Settle, Possibly Apologize

Executives at CBS News’s parent company, Paramount, are reportedly getting closer to securing a settlement with President Trump over his $20 billion lawsuit, even as Mr. Trump said he was “intently” exploring whether to sue the New York Times for repeatedly referring to the lawsuit as baseless and frivolous.Paramount’s board of directors gave the go-ahead in principle for a settlement and drafted an internal outline of terms it would deem acceptable during an April 18 meeting, the Times reported. The paper notes the “exact” amount that the board members feel comfortable with has not been disclosed. Yet the nonexecutive chairwoman of Paramount, Shari Redstone, who has been advocating for a settlement in the belief that it would pave the way for the Federal Communications Commission to approve the merger of Paramount and Skydance Media, told the board that she would recuse herself from discussions about the lawsuit, according to the Times. Ms. Redstone, whose father built the company into the media giant it is today, is slated for an enormous windfall when the merger is consummated.Paramount did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication. As mediation talks were reportedly scheduled to begin on Wednesday — some reports say they have already begun — Mr. Trump unleashed a lengthy post on Truth Social attacking the network.“The case we have against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount is a true WINNER. They cheated and defrauded the American People at levels never seen before in the Political Arena,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Kamala Harris, during Early Voting and, immediately before Election Day, was asked a question, and gave an answer, that was so bad and incompetent that it would have cost her many of the Votes that she ended up getting.”He said “60 Minutes” had “removed and deleted Kamala’s entire answer, every word of it, and replaced it with a response that she gave later on to an entirely different question.” His description of the editing is not entirely accurate. In response to a question about Israel, Ms. Harris delivered a meandering response, and the first, most convoluted part of her answer was removed by CBS News producers, thus making her seem more concise and coherent. The answer “60 Minutes” aired was given to the original question; it was just the later, more coherent portion of the answer that was deceptively sewn together with the question to make it sound like she answered the interviewer’s question coherently, when in fact she did not. In Mr. Trump’s Wednesday post, he explained the basic complaint about the editing, as he said that the edited answer was “not good,” but it also “didn’t show Gross Incompetence like the one that was removed by 60 Minutes.”Along with criticizing “60 Minutes,” CBS, and Paramount, Mr. Trump took aim at the New York Times for publishing articles that raise doubts about whether his case has any merit, citing unnamed analysts.“The bottom line is that what 60 Minutes and its corporate owners have committed is one of the most egregious illegalities in Broadcast History. Nothing like this, the illegal creation of an answer for a Presidential Candidate, has ever been done before, they have to pay a price for it,” the president said. “And the Times should also be on the hook for their likely unlawful behavior. It is vital to hold these Liars and Fraudsters accountable!”He claimed its coverage is “fake” and “makes them liable for tortious interference, including in Elections, which we are intently studying.”The Times has persistently been criticized over the years for inserting its reporters’ opinions into articles, prefaced by “but experts say” or “but legal observers say” and the like, without naming any of these so-called experts. A spokeswoman for the Times, Danielle Rhoades Ha, told the Sun, “President Trump’s post today follows a long list of legal threats aimed at discouraging or penalizing independent reporting about the administration. The law is clear and protects a strong free press and favors an informed American public.”“The New York Times will not be deterred by the administration’s intimidation tactics. We will continue to pursue the facts without fear or favor and stand up for journalists’ First Amendment right to ask questions on behalf of the American people,” she added.While Paramount’s board has reportedly created an outline of the terms of a settlement deal it would find acceptable, it is unclear if Mr. Trump will agree. Asked in the Cabinet Room earlier this year about the suit, Mr. Trump said CBS should pay “a lot” and that its edit could have cost him the election.A veteran media reporter, Matthew Belloni, predicted on his podcast, “The Town,” that the settlement price will not be close to $20 billion. He predicted that the executives could be willing to pay up to $50 million in the hopes that the settlement would lead to the FCC approving the Skydance deal. Disney recently settled with Mr. Trump for $16 million over one of its news personalities, George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton operative, falsely stating multiple times on the venerable “This Week” program that Mr. Trump was “found liable for rape.” The move toward a settlement has caused consternation in the news division at CBS. Executives at Paramount reportedly fear that paying to settle the lawsuit could be seen as a bribe to government officials, the Wall Street Journal reports. One way to avoid the appearance of a bribe is to issue an apology for the edits. However, the CEO of CBS News and Stations, Wendy McMahon, and the outgoing executive producer of “60 Minutes,” Bill Owens, have reportedly signaled that an apology is a “red line” they will not cross, according to a liberal journalist, Oliver Darcy.In a February staff meeting, reported on by the Times, Mr. Owens — who was forced to resign last week — told his staff, “There have been reports in the media about a settlement and/or apology. The company knows I will not apologize for anything we have done.”“The edit is perfectly fine; let’s put that to bed so we can get on with our lives,” he said, referring to the release of the transcript, which CBS News finally agreed to do — after resisting for months — on the orders of Mr. Trump’s FCC.Amid their resistance to a settlement, there had been growing tension between Mr. Owens and Ms. Redstone, a strong supporter of Israel, over “60 Minutes” and its coverage of the Jewish state. Ms. Redstone reportedly pushed to have Mr. Owens fired after the news magazine program aired a segment about dissent in the Department of State over America’s response to Israel’s war against Hamas, which the American Jewish Committee called a “shockingly one-sided” report. Mr. Owens was not fired at the time, but CBS News installed a rival of his, Susan Zirinsky, in a new role overseeing editorial standards for the entire news division, including “60 Minutes.” Ms. Zirinsky was supposed to head off more incidents of anti-Israel bias. Yet “60 Minutes” impudently aired another anti-Israel segment earlier this month in which Lesley Stahl asked a freed American-Israeli hostage if Hamas starved him simply because it did not have food.Amid the criticism of its coverage of Israel and Mr. Trump’s frequent attacks, executives at Paramount also asked for lists of upcoming stories about the president, Semafor reported. As executives sought greater oversight over the content produced by CBS News, journalists at the network have become increasingly concerned about what they view as corporate meddling.In a memo announcing his resignation, Mr. Owens said, “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.”Outside of CBS News, liberal journalists have criticized Paramount and Skydance executives for seeming to strip away journalistic independence to appease the Trump administration and ensure their merger is approved. Additionally, they have criticized Ms. Redstone, accusing her of caving to the president to secure a sizable payout. According to the Times, producers at “60 Minutes” are concerned that a planned segment about conflicts between major law firms and the Trump administration, the latest in a series of anti-Trump segments they’ve been broadcasting, could face interference from executives.Thus far, executives at CBS appear to be reluctant to interfere to stop critical segments. Mr. Darcy reports that Ms. McMahon and the president of CBS and co-executive of Paramount, George Cheeks, were aware that journalist Scott Pelley planned to address the resignation of Mr. Owens — which turned into a rare public rebuke of network executives — and did not intervene to stop it.Mr. Pelley also said that despite the increased oversight, the network has not blocked any of its stories.

Trump Threatens New York Times With Legal Action for Its ‘Fake’ Coverage of His ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit as CBS’s Parent Company Prepares To Settle, Possibly Apologize

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