By Terence Smith
Sixteen million dollars — that’s the payoff Paramount and CBS have agreed to pay to Donald J. Trump’s future Presidential library (should there ever be one) and his lawyers to settle the meritless suit the President lodged over a 60 Minutes edit of an interview with Kamala Harris. CBS also agreed to release transcripts of future interviews, a violation of its longstanding practice.
I remember seeing the original Harris interview and the edited clip that appeared on Face The Nation. Having done dozens of such edits over my years with CBS and PBS, I could see that it was a routine edit. It was not designed to influence the presidential election campaign one way or the other. So, to be clear, CBS is agreeing to pay $16 million for 60 Minutes simply doing its job in a routine, entirely professional fashion.
The payoff is nothing of the kind, of course. It is the price that Paramount feels CBS must pay to Trump Inc. to obtain FCC approval of its upcoming $8 billion sale to SkyDance.
Financially, it makes sense for Paramount ’s shareholders: $16 million to grease the skids for an $ 8 billion deal that requires approval of Trump’s FCC to go through. Simple. Little more than chump change for Paramount.
But for CBS News, and its flagship 60 Minutes, it is a disgrace. It’s also a defeat for the viewers who have trusted 60 Minutes to do its job professionally over the years.
For all of us, it’s a sad day.