CBS News has been under fire from The Usual Suspects for weeks now in the aftermath of the settlement news pertaining to President Donald Trump's lawsuit against parent company Paramount Global over the deceptively edited "60 Minutes" interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which aired just a month before the 2024 presidential election.

As Harris was the Democrat presidential nominee, Trump alleged election interference. Instead of a contentious and protracted battle playing out in the courts amid a highly publicized merger with Skydance Media, Paramount decided to tap out with a $16 million settlement to cover legal fees and which would also be put towards the future Trump presidential library. 

They also agreed to release future "60 Minutes" transcripts from interviews they do with presidential candidates. Trump wrote in a late July Truth Social post that "we also anticipate receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming," but that has not been confirmed nor denied by Paramount.

SEE ALSO: CBS Has to Walk Back 'Fake News' Hegseth Hit Piece After DOD Puts Them on Blast

Some political observers noted at the time, however, that Resistance media outlets likely are not going to settle with their number one nemesis unless there is some merit to the lawsuit, which they worry could cause long-term damage to the brand.

As it turns out, if one reads between the lines, it sounds like that's exactly how this played out behind the scenes ahead of the revelation of the settlement, according to a New York Times interview with former CBS Corporation vice chair Shari Redstone, who they say "personally withdrew" from settlement discussions in January but who "remained the public face of Paramount and CBS as nonexecutive chair":

The Redstones also worried that Mr. Trump’s lawyers could cherry-pick raw footage and internal communications and do more damage to CBS News’s reputation than any settlement would. Ms. Redstone said CBS personnel had told her that in October 2023, when Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes” interviewed President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the president had seemed drowsy and had to be prodded to answer. She and Tyler worried that CBS might be accused of editing the interview to conceal Mr. Biden’s failings.

“This case was never as black-and-white as people assumed,” Ms. Redstone said.

One person who witnessed the interview in person, and another who recently reviewed the raw footage, said the Redstones’ concerns about the Biden interview were overblown. Mr. Biden gave some typically circuitous answers, but he never had to be prodded, they said. On air, Mr. Pelley characterized Mr. Biden as seeming “tired.”

In other words, it sounds like one big reason they decided to settle is because they were sitting on something they feared would prove Trump right, if not in a court of law, then the court of public opinion, the latter of which could hurt CBS News for decades to come.

While these things are usually not too hard to predict, it is nevertheless fascinating and rewarding when evidence of such comes to light.

Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.

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