Skydance, the company that bought Paramount, was also pushing for a settlement in order to grease the wheels of the merger, which was at the time still awaiting FCC approval. (The NYT reports that a Skydance lawyer even suggested Paramount donate to the Kennedy Center as a gesture of goodwill to the White House, but Paramount “rejected that as inappropriate.”) Redstone continues to claim—somewhat unbelievably—that she personally thought the settlement and the merger approval were completely separate. However, she claims she was worried what would happen if the case went to trial.
For one thing, it was in an area of Texas where the jury was likely to favor Trump. For another, she felt it would make the CBS News archive vulnerable to Trump’s lawyers. She offers as an example the raw footage of the 60 Minutes interview with Joe Biden in 2023, in which Biden allegedly “seemed drowsy and had to be prodded to answer.” Redstone told the NYT that she and her son worried that CBS would be accused of editing the interview to conceal Biden’s failings. But two people (one who was there for the interview, another who saw the footage) disagree with Redstone’s characterization of the footage and said Biden never had to be prodded.
In light of that, you might think Redstone was just coming up with an excuse to fit her version of events. That theory would also be supported by the fact that Redstone had her own issues with CBS News, particularly after a 60 Minutes segment that she found to be too biased against Israel. (The October 7 attacks were apparently her inspiration for selling Paramount: “Once that happened, I wanted out. I wanted to support Israel, and address issues around antisemitism and racism,” she told the NYT). In that sense, she believed Trump’s meddling with the venerable news division could dovetail nicely with her own beliefs: “We needed more balance,” she said to the outlet. “Part of me thought, maybe Trump could accomplish what I never got done.” Obviously, CBS News staff haven’t been thrilled by the changes at the company, but Skydance has promised the White House even more oversight on content—so it seems like that settlement really worked out for everyone!
