Although its lawyers are continuing to fight the case on its legal grounds—which, from our non-legal-scholar vantage point, seems like it’d be kind of easy, given how dumb the suit in question is—Paramount has supposedly had some movement in its efforts to settle its 60 Minutes lawsuit with Donald Trump. Trump is, of course, suing the show, and CBS News, for the hideous crime of editing down an interview question asked of former Vice President Kamala Harris, which Trump’s lawyers say somehow damaged him as… the owner of a social media network? Anyway, according to The Wall Street Journal, a mediator in the dispute has put forward their official opinion, suggesting that $20 million might be a stupidly acceptable number to smooth this all over.
Which is actually kind of a deal, when you consider that Trump is suing the media company for $20 billion, a number he definitely did not pick after Whats App-ing the brain trust to see what the highest number anybody could think of was. The money, if handed over, would primarily go to Trump’s presidential foundation or museum—and god, but that’s going to be the most kickass presidential library of all time, given how many media companies he’s bullied into shelling out millions for it since he won the 2024 election. There’d also be several million covering Trump’s legal fees, as well as, according to The Guardian, “Funding public service announcements against antisemitism on Paramount-owned networks.” Paramount previously tried to float $15 million, but apparently that was considered too cheap.
But there is, of course, a sticking point, and it’s pulled straight from the plot of any given sitcom you might care to name: Trump is also apparently demanding an apology from CBS News, and the organization is refusing to budge. Which reflects, quite nicely, the actual principles at stake here: CBS News has contended that it did nothing wrong by editing an answer to make it more concise for different broadcast contexts, and that what Trump is doing is just a naked attack on the press. (The organization has already suffered losses amidst pressures from on-high: 60 Minutes producer Bill Owens resigned after stating Paramount had been pushing him to go easier on Trump, and high-profile reporters like Lesley Stahl have discussed their misery at their corporate owners’ expected capitulation in the suit.) Given that the money really doesn’t seem to be the primary point of any of this for any of the parties—Paramount wants the suit cleared because it needs the FCC to approve its pending merger with Skydance, Trump has been unabashed about wanting to get the American media cowed and in its kennel, and CBS News has been fierce in its protection of its journalistic standards—it’s not clear whether the mediator finding the right dollar amount is actually going to do much to move the needle. Still: Progress is progress!
