Paramount, the proprietor of CBS Information, introduced late Tuesday it had agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit introduced by President Donald Trump, in response to the Wall Avenue Journal. The lawsuit alleged that “60 Minutes” had edited an interview with Kamala Harris to make it extra favorable to her within the lead as much as the 2024 presidential election, making it one of the vital laughably absurd lawsuits Trump has ever filed. However Paramount is forking over thousands and thousands anyway in what many are calling a clear bribe. And at the very least one elected Democrat says he’s not going to let it stand.
Sen. Ron Wyden, a progressive Democrat from Oregon, is just not proud of the deal reached by Paramount, which can see the media firm pay for Trump’s authorized charges and hand thousands and thousands to his presidential library. Paramount International is making an attempt to merge with Skydance Media, one thing that Trump will now be capable to greenlight.
“Paramount simply paid Trump a bribe for merger approval,” Wyden wrote on Bluesky. “When Democrats retake energy, I’ll be first in line calling for federal expenses. Within the meantime, state prosecutors ought to make the company execs who offered out our democracy reply in courtroom, in the present day.”
Wyden wasn’t the one Democrat upset with the deal. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Unbiased from Vermont who caucuses with the Dems, stated the Redstone household, main homeowners of Paramount, had settled a “bogus lawsuit” and it set a harmful precedent for each the First Modification and what he known as “authorities extortion.”
“Paramount’s determination will solely embolden Trump to proceed attacking, suing and intimidating the media which he has labeled ‘the enemy of the folks.’” Sanders stated in a press release revealed by reporter Max Tani on Bluesky. “It’s a darkish day for unbiased journalism and freedom of the press—an important a part of our democracy. It’s a victory for a president who’s making an attempt to stifle dissent and undermine American democracy.”
Sanders went on to say it’s “fairly apparent” why Paramount was selecting to “give up to Trump.”
“The Redstone household is in line to obtain $2.4 billion from the sale of Paramount to Skydance, however they will solely obtain this cash if the Trump administration approves this deal,” Sanders wrote. “In different phrases, the Redstone household diminished the liberty of the press in the present day in trade for a $2.4 billion payday.”
The half that makes all of this so ridiculous is that “60 Minutes” clearly did nothing unsuitable. Trump says the video was edited to make Harris look higher. However in case you have a look at the unedited interview and evaluate it to what aired, there’s completely nothing substantively completely different. The typical viewer didn’t get a unique reply than what she meant to speak. Each edit made was clearly a part of the common splicing and dicing that occurs when TV information organizations are attempting to chop one thing collectively to match time constraints with out considerably altering what’s been stated.
On prime of all of it, Harris misplaced. It’s not like Trump may even argue that Harris benefited from the interview in a approach that modified the end result of the election. He’s only a sore winner and making an attempt to make use of each device at his disposal to advance his fascist agenda. And except Democrats are in a position to transform issues, they gained’t even get an opportunity to file these bribery expenses whereas they’re within the minority.
ABC Information and Meta have additionally reached multi-million greenback agreements to settle frivolous lawsuits with Trump which have additionally been seen as bribes. These lawsuits additionally had no basis however administration agreed to pay anyway, identical to Paramount. However so long as Trump can extort main media and know-how firms, it looks as if he’s simply going to maintain doing it.
