Will Paramount Settle With Trump?

Summary

The Journal: Will Paramount Settle With Trump?
Released on February 27, 2025
Hosts: Kate Linebaugh, Ryan Knutson, Jessica Mendoza
Produced by: The Wall Street Journal & Gimlet, Spotify

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1. Introduction

In the February 27, 2025 episode of The Journal, hosts Kate Linebaugh, Ryan Knutson, and Jessica Mendoza delve into the tumultuous intersection of media, politics, and business surrounding former President Donald Trump's lawsuit against CBS. At the heart of the controversy lies an $8 billion merger attempt by Paramount Global, CBS's parent company, which is now imperiled by both Trump's legal actions and regulatory scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

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2. Background: The Kamala Harris Interview Controversy

The episode opens with a brief reference to a pivotal moment that set the stage for the ensuing legal battle. Veteran correspondent Bill Whitaker's interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes became a flashpoint when Donald Trump accused CBS of media bias.

Key Moment:

• Bill Whitaker (00:45): “But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening. The Wall Street Journal said that he that your administration has repeatedly been blindsided by Netanyahu and in fact, he has rebuffed just about all of your administration's entreaties.”
• Kamala Harris (01:06): “...we are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”

Harris's response, as aired on 60 Minutes, was later claimed by Trump to have been deceptively edited to favor her campaign, igniting allegations of media manipulation.

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3. Donald Trump's $10 Billion Lawsuit Against CBS

Following the aired interview, Donald Trump publicly criticized CBS, labeling the network as "among the most dishonest people that we have."

Trump's Assertion:

• Donald Trump (03:52): “So you know what? If you want me to, I will sue them. Should I? Because they are among the most see the media, they're among the most dishonest people that we have. They're the biggest.”

Subsequently, Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against CBS, alleging that the edited interview was intended to undermine his campaign by misrepresenting Harris's responses.

Legal Developments:

• Jessica Tunkel (04:14): “So Trump files this massive lawsuit...he is saying this was deceitful. You did this to favor her campaign over mine.”
• CBS's Response (05:43): CBS vehemently denied the allegations, stating, “It's the same question, same answer, different portions of the response. And this is a frivolous lawsuit.”

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4. Paramount's $8 Billion Merger with Skydance and FCC Scrutiny

Paramount Global's ambition to merge with Skydance, a production company led by David Ellison, has encountered significant hurdles due to Trump's lawsuit and an unusual focus by the FCC on media bias.

Merger Details:

• Jessica Tunkel (10:23): “David Ellison and Skydance seemed like a perfect suitor for Paramount and Sherry Redstone.”
• The merger, aiming to transform Paramount into a new media powerhouse, has been in negotiations for over a year, facing numerous delays and competing suitors.

Current Impasse:

• Jessica Tunkel (11:47): The FCC demands a review of CBS News for alleged bias, requesting transcripts and raw footage of the Harris interview.
• This move by the FCC is unprecedented, as regulator typically focuses on ownership and antitrust issues rather than editorial content.

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5. Internal Dynamics and Pressure Within Paramount

The potential settlement of Trump's lawsuit is creating internal strife within Paramount and CBS News. On one side, journalists and executives resist settling, fearing it could set a dangerous precedent. On the other, controlling shareholder Sherry Redstone advocates for a settlement to expedite the merger.

Internal Conflict:

• Jessica Tunkel (13:40): “There were...journalists and executives at the company who do not want to settle...Sherry Redstone...is starting to see that the only option...is by settling this lawsuit.”

Paramount faces the dual challenge of defending its media integrity while pushing forward with a high-stakes business merger.

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6. Potential Outcomes and Implications

Legal experts largely dismiss Trump's lawsuit as frivolous, emphasizing First Amendment protections for the media. However, if Paramount chooses to settle, it raises concerns about potential quid pro quo arrangements with the FCC, which could lead to severe legal repercussions.

Expert Opinions:

• Jessica Tunkel (08:06): “First Amendment attorneys say this is completely frivolous and ridiculous...sources close to Paramount... could mean years in court.”
• Potential Risks (14:31): Settling might be perceived as bribing a public official, risking criminal charges and tarnishing CBS's reputation.

The FCC's unusual focus on media bias during a merger review could set a new precedent, potentially exposing media companies to greater regulatory scrutiny over editorial content.

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7. Current Status and Future Prospects

As the episode concludes, settlement talks between Trump and CBS appear to be in motion.

Recent Developments:

• Donald Trump (16:11): “So we sued and we are in discussions of settlement.”

Meanwhile, Skydance remains hesitant to proceed with the merger until Paramount resolves the lawsuit, threatening to withdraw if the legal battle persists.

Skydance's Stance:

• Jessica Tunkel (15:33): “Skydance wants Paramount to get rid of this before they buy the company. They don't want to deal with this.”

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8. Conclusion

The episode of The Journal intricately weaves a narrative where media bias allegations, high-profile lawsuits, and billion-dollar mergers intersect, highlighting the fragile balance between free press, corporate ambitions, and political vendettas. The outcome of Paramount's settlement with Trump not only affects the business landscape of media conglomerates but also has profound implications for journalistic integrity and regulatory oversight in the United States.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Donald Trump (03:52): “So you know what? If you want me to, I will sue them. Should I? Because they are among the most see the media, they're among the most dishonest people that we have. They're the biggest.”

• Kamala Harris (01:06): “...we are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”

• Jessica Tunkel (08:06): “First Amendment attorneys say this is completely frivolous and ridiculous...sources close to Paramount... could mean years in court.”

• Jessica Tunkel (13:40): “There were...journalists and executives at the company who do not want to settle...Sherry Redstone...is starting to see that the only option...is by settling this lawsuit.”

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the multifaceted issues explored in the episode, offering listeners a nuanced understanding of the high-stakes interplay between media ethics, legal battles, and corporate strategy.

Transcript

[Kamala Harris]

Okay. Hi, everyone. Well, welcome to Mikasa.

[Bill Whitaker]

Thank you.

[Jessica Tunkel]

Hi.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Hi.

[Bill Whitaker]

Hello again, madam.

[Kamala Harris]

How are you?

[Kate Linebaugh]

This is raw video footage from 60 Minutes, the long standing news magazine show on CBS. Last fall, veteran correspondent Bill Whitaker sat down with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

[Bill Whitaker]

Good.

[Kamala Harris]

I'm good.

[Bill Whitaker]

All right. Well, Madam Vice President.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Whitaker kicked the interview off with questions about the Middle east and pressed Harris on the Biden administration's relationship with Israel's prime minister.

[Bill Whitaker]

But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening. The Wall Street Journal said that he that your administration has repeatedly been blindsided by Netanyahu and in fact, he has rebuffed just about all of your administration's entreaties.

[Kamala Harris]

Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. And we're not going to stop doing that. We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.

[Kate Linebaugh]

This answer and how it was edited has become the center of a storm involving President Trump, claims of election interference and questions about media independence. This storm is also threatening an $8 billion merger that CBS parent company Paramount Global desperately wants to get done. Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Kate LINEBAUGH. It's Thursday, February 27th. Coming up on the show, Trump's fight against the news media runs headlong into a massive entertainment merger. Foreign.

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[Kate Linebaugh]

Soon after 60 Minutes aired its interview with Harris, her opponent Donald Trump took to the stage at a campaign rally and asked his supporters a question.

[Donald Trump]

So you know what? If you want me to, I will sue them. Should I? Because they are among the most see the media, they're among the most dishonest people that we have. They're the biggest.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Trump did SUE CBS for $10 billion, and our colleague Jessica Tunkel has been following the case.

[Jessica Tunkel]

So Trump files this massive lawsuit. And, you know, frankly, at the time, I'm not sure everyone took it super seriously because they felt like it was grandstanding. But in the claim, what he says is that there was a promotion for the interview on Face the Nation.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Face the Nation is another CBS show, and it aired a preview of the interview.

[Jessica Tunkel]

And then when you actually saw the interview, it was much more. It was a cleaner answer. It was a more succinct answer.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Here is Harris answer as it aired on Face the Nation.

[Bill Whitaker]

But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.

[Kamala Harris]

Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.

[Kate Linebaugh]

And here's what aired on 60 Minutes.

[Kamala Harris]

We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.

[Jessica Tunkel]

When you actually saw the interview on 60 Minutes, it was a much more succinct answer. And so Trump is saying this was deceitful. You did this to favor her campaign over mine.

[Kate Linebaugh]

How did CBS respond?

[Jessica Tunkel]

So CBS was pretty vehement. They said, you know, it's the same question, same answer, different portions of the response. And this is a frivolous lawsuit.

[Kate Linebaugh]

And like sort of stepping back in media generally, what is best practice when it comes to this kind of editing?

[Jessica Tunkel]

I think the best practice is to make sure that whatever the promotion is is in line with what the answer was on the interview. I want to clarify that 60 minutes is unusual in that it is like an hour's worth of footage that they like, cut down to 21 minutes. So there is an expectation there's going to be a lot of editing of that interview. But sources have told me that since this happened, they are going to be more rigid about Making sure that it's exactly the same language that's used in promotions.

[Kate Linebaugh]

And I would say that this is a tricky area in media editing. Politicians, yes.

[Jessica Tunkel]

This is a complete minefield. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't, you know, because they do so much editing to get a longer interview down to just around 20 minutes. It's tricky.

[Kate Linebaugh]

After Trump won the election, several companies that he sued announced settlements. In December, ABC said it would pay Trump $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit. The case involved an inaccurate statement by anchor George Stephanopoulos about a sexual abuse case against Trump. In January, Meta settled a case over Trump's suspension on Instagram and Facebook, paying him $25 million. X also settled a similar case for 10 million.

[Jessica Tunkel]

So since then, it felt like CBS was not publicly as vehement in its outrage over the lawsuit, and they've been going back and forth in court. Trump recently, a few weeks ago, amended his complaint to increase the amount to 20 billion.

[Kate Linebaugh]

$20 billion?

[Jessica Tunkel]

Yes.

[Kate Linebaugh]

What have legal experts said are the chances that Trump's lawsuit would succeed in court?

[Jessica Tunkel]

So it kind of depends who you talk to. I will say that First Amendment attorneys say this is completely frivolous and ridiculous, and that has no standing. I mean, you know, when I talk to sources close to Paramount, I think the concern is, even if they were to win this ultimately, it could mean years in court. Battling the President of the United States could be hundreds of millions of dollars. And what would it mean for CBS News then?

[Kate Linebaugh]

And if they choose to settle, what do legal experts say that would show?

[Jessica Tunkel]

I think if they choose to settle, the concern is that all news outlets are sort of at the whims of the President of the United States. And if he feels like what is being said is unfair or not accurate, regardless of whether it is or not, they could risk litigation. So it does feel like we are entering this era of media versus the President.

[Kate Linebaugh]

But in the case of cbs, there's this other layer.

[Jessica Tunkel]

In the case of cbs, they have to get this merger done, this merger.

[Kate Linebaugh]

CBS parent company Paramount is trying to get an $8 billion merger completed. But first, it needs approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which is now run by a Trump appointee. That's after the break. Paramount is a huge media conglomerate. It not only owns cbs, it also owns Showtime, Paramount Pictures, and And its own streaming platform. And the company has been struggling for years. Long before the Harris interview aired, Paramount's owners had started merger talks with a production company called Skydance.

[Jessica Tunkel]

The controlling shareholder, Sherry Redstone, did Not want to sell. She had a lot of belief that the company could turn around until finally in comes David Ellison, who runs his own production company, which is much smaller than Paramount, by the way, but his father is Larry Ellison, who's a billionaire. He has this vision of taking tech and, you know, making Paramount a new media company. And he has billions of dollars to back it up.

[Kate Linebaugh]

David Ellison and Skydance seemed like a perfect suitor for Paramount and Sherry Redstone. But talks dragged on for more than a year.

[Jessica Tunkel]

And there were ups and there were downs. You know, the deal was canceled, then it was back on, then it was off, then it was on. And then you had other suitors coming in and saying they wanted to buy Paramount. I mean, it was very dramatic. You really didn't know until the very end if this deal was actually going to be announced.

[Kate Linebaugh]

The deal was announced last summer, but to be finalized, it needed government approval, specifically the fcc.

[Jessica Tunkel]

All my sources were telling me this is just gonna fly through, like the election will happen, and it will fly through, because people at that point were thinking Trump was gonna win and that the deal would happen.

[Kate Linebaugh]

That is not what happened. What's holding up the deal at this moment?

[Jessica Tunkel]

So that is not what has happened. And what's holding up the deal primarily is this concern around bias at CBS News. So the FCC has first said, we want to see the transcript of the interview with Kamala Harris. We want to see the raw footage, and we want to review all of that. The FCC also reopened a third party complaint against CBS News about bias, which the Biden administration had tossed out. So the FCC has made it very clear that this is a focus for them. They are reviewing bias at CBS News as part of their review.

[Kate Linebaugh]

And that is totally separate from the.

[Jessica Tunkel]

Trump lawsuit on paper. That is totally separate. There is our separate filings, a separate docket for the FCC review than from Donald Trump's personal lawsuit.

[Kate Linebaugh]

So whether Paramount settles with Trump should not have any impact on the FCC review.

[Jessica Tunkel]

Theoretically, it should not have any impact. If. If there is a settlement, it should not impact the FCC review.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Is that unusual for the fcc, the Federal Communications Commission, to bring up the idea of bias as part of a merger review?

[Jessica Tunkel]

I do not recall a time when you've seen the FCC look at this issue of bias. The FCC usually looks at the stations and like, whether two companies, if you put them together, they own too many stations, and that will be an issue. I don't recall a time where I've seen bias be this much of an issue with the FCC in A merger.

[Kate Linebaugh]

And what about people inside Paramount? How are they thinking about all of this?

[Jessica Tunkel]

We had heard that there were discussions internally at Paramount to settle the lawsuit, and that has caused a lot of controversy within Paramount, within CBS news, specifically, within 60 minutes, because you have journalists and executives at the company who do not want to settle, who think it's a terrible precedent. And you have a controlling shareholder, Sherry Redstone, who is starting to see that the only option to not be in litigation for the next several years is by settling this lawsuit.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Since CBS and Paramount have been so vehement that this case is frivolous, if they do settle, could it be interpreted as a quid pro quo for approval for the merger?

[Jessica Tunkel]

Well, that's the concern. The concern is if the settlement is viewed as a quid pro quo for getting the merger approved, that these executives could then be sued for bribing a public official. I reported a few weeks ago that one major concern among executives at Paramount is if Paramount settles this lawsuit and then a few weeks later, or whenever the FCC and the other regulators approved this deal with Skydance, some state attorney general could file criminal charges for bribing a public official. I've heard people talk about jail time.

[Kate Linebaugh]

A spokesperson for Paramount Global said, quote, this lawsuit is completely separate from and unrelated to the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process. We will abide by the legal process to defend our case. And what has Skydance said?

[Jessica Tunkel]

Skydance has not said anything publicly. Skydance does not own Paramount, so they really technically can't get involved in any of this.

[Kate Linebaugh]

Would Skydance go ahead with the deal if the Trump lawsuit is still out there?

[Jessica Tunkel]

So sources have told me that Skydance wants Paramount to get rid of this before they buy the company. They don't want to deal with this.

[Kate Linebaugh]

And yesterday there was an indication that a deal could be in the works. Trump told reporters that settlement talks are underway in his case against cbs.

[Donald Trump]

So we sued and we are in discussions of settlement.

[Kate Linebaugh]

When you look at this, do you think it's more of a media story or a business story or a politics story?

[Jessica Tunkel]

Everything is so intertwined. You know, I think it's all three of those things. It is a media story, obviously, because of the precedent could set and because of the controversy within news organizations around the globe, people have very strong feelings about whether Paramount should settle or not. I think it's a business story because you have Paramount, which is in the middle of this merger with Skydance Media. And that merger in and of itself has been through many, many iterations and challenges and then you have it as a politics story because of the Trump of it. All of.

[Kate Linebaugh]

That'S all for today. Thursday, February 27th. The Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting in this episode by Joe Flint and Drew Fitzgerald. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.