CBS owner considers settling Trump lawsuit over Kamala Harris ’60 Minutes’ interview before merger review: report

Paramount Global executives have held internal talks to settle a lawsuit filed by President-elect Donald Trump over a CBS News interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a report.

Paramount, the parent company of CBS, hopes to close its planned merger with Skydance Media in the coming months, but is being sued by Trump for allegedly redacting the “60 Minutes” meeting with Harris shortly before the election.

In recent months, it has become clear that Trump’s displeasure with CBS News is proving to be a major obstacle, and he will likely need to make concessions to win approval, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The Post previously reported that the deal is likely to remain in regulatory purgatory for the foreseeable future under Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr unless it meets certain “fairness” conditions that will be required by Trump’s FCC.

The FCC has authority over the deal because it would involve the transfer of broadcast television licenses held by CBS-owned local stations.

The newspaper said there was no indication Paramount had approached Trump’s team about a settlement, but company executives were playing up options to reduce friction with the incoming administration in order to facilitate the merger.

A representative for Trump did not immediately comment on whether Paramount had contacted the President-elect’s team.

A source told The Post that the talks have been described as “informal,” meaning there have been no presentations or formal plans drawn up.

Representatives for Paramount and Skydance had no comment.

At issue is Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against CBS, which alleges the network committed election interference by editing portions of a “60 Minutes” interview with Harris to eliminate a “word salad” response about the Israel-Hamas war.

Trump claimed that CBS aired a version of the interview on “60 Minutes” and another version on his show “Face the Nation,” each containing different answers, and demanded that the network release the transcript of the taped interview.

CBS said it aired a more condensed version of Harris’ interview on “60 Minutes” for clarity. She has refused to release a full transcript of the interview.

Reports of the settlement talks follow a capitulation by rival ABC News in a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump.

He sued the Disney-owned network and star host George Stephanopoulos over comments the “This Week” host made on air that Trump had been held civilly liable for the rape of writer E. Jean Carroll.

A federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse.

Last month, Disney settled the defamation suit, agreeing to contribute $15 million to Trump’s presidential foundation or museum and pay $1 million in legal fees to Trump’s lawyer.

Carr recently wrote a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger ripping the national news media, saying, “Americans no longer trust the national news media to report fully, accurately and fairly.”

His opinion extends to CBS coverage as well.

As a result, Paramount and Skydance executives have considered a number of potential changes, such as bringing more oversight over CBS News’ editorial operations, adding new processes around programming and possibly releasing the transcript of her 60 Minutes interview. ” with Harris, The Journal. reported.

This week, CBS News announced it named veteran CBS News producer Susan Zirinsky as executive editor to oversee the network’s editorial process and journalistic standards on an interim basis amid allegations of bias.

The network is currently looking for a permanent hire and has reached out to several cable news executives for the role, a source said.

The move follows a series of missteps by the network, including its most recent lashing out in a Jan. 12 segment on “60 Minutes” about the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza. The segment raised concerns about bias in the news industry.

Jewish organizations and the Anti-Defamation League ripped the episode for being anti-Israel.

Executives questioned why more context wasn’t added to the article to make it more balanced, The Journal reported.

Meanwhile, Skydance, which is run by David Ellison — the son of billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, a Trump booster — is seeking to close the $8 billion Paramount deal, which has taken months of painstaking work to close. was reached with controlling shareholder Shari Redstone. who also has a good relationship with Trump.

Under the terms of the deal, Skydance and its investors agreed to buy Redstone’s stake in Paramount and merge it with Skydance, which as produced films for the studio including the recent sequels “Mission: Impossible” and “Top Gun: Maverick “.

A person close to Skydance said David Ellison would support measures to promote impartial journalism, The Journal said.