Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) lambasted Paramount Global’s decision on Wednesday to settle with President Donald Trump for $16 million over editing choices in CBS News’s 60 Minutes election special that made former Vice President Kamala Harris look more favorable.
Sanders claimed independent media were under attack following the settlement of Trump’s lawsuit.
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“It is a dark day for freedom of the press. Paramount’s decision to settle with Trump will only embolden him to continue his attack on the media,” the independent senator, who caucuses with Democrats, posted on X. “Trump is undermining our democracy and moving us towards authoritarianism, and the billionaires are helping him do it.”
A longer statement followed, with Sanders arguing that CBS’s parent company had set an “extremely dangerous precedent” regarding the First Amendment and “government extortion.”
Sanders directed his ire not only at Trump for undermining democracy but also toward Paramount for capitulating because of its pending $28 billion merger with Skydance Media that needs to be approved by the Trump administration.
“The Redstone family is in line to receive $2.4 billion from the sale of Paramount to Skydance, but they can only receive this money if the Trump administration approves this deal,” Sanders said. “In other words, the Redstone family diminished the freedom of the press today in exchange for a $2.4 billion payday.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) similarly criticized Paramount’s settlement with Trump and even called for an investigation over “whether or not any anti-bribery laws were broken” in light of the proposed merger.
Sanders previously warned Shari Redstone, the chairwoman of Paramount, that settling Trump’s lawsuit would be a “grave mistake.”
“Rewarding Trump with tens of millions of dollars for filing this bogus lawsuit will not cause him to back down on his war against the media and a free press,” a letter dated May 6 states. “It will only embolden him to shakedown, extort, and silence CBS and other media outlets that have the courage to report about issues that Trump may not like.”
Sanders’s plea to Redstone fell on deaf ears, as indicated by the media corporation’s decision to reach an agreement with Trump and other plaintiffs.
Paramount said on Tuesday that the $16 million sum covers plaintiffs’ fees and costs and will be allocated to Trump’s future presidential library instead of being paid to Trump directly. The lawsuit sought $20 billion in damages.
The case stemmed from Harris’s pre-election interview with 60 Minutes, with CBS claiming it edited her lengthy answers for time purposes only.
Meanwhile, Trump claimed the network manipulated the interview footage to make his presidential opponent seem more coherent.
The Federal Communications Commission, led by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, then ordered the release of the interview’s complete, unedited transcript. CBS and 60 Minutes complied.
Last week, Sanders debated podcast host Joe Rogan on whether Trump’s litigation against Paramount and CBS was warranted. More broadly, the lawmaker accused the president of “intimidating media” by suing broadcast networks.
Like Sanders, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression took issue with Paramount’s settlement, which the free speech advocacy organization warned could lead to more government-led lawsuits against the news media.
PARAMOUNT SETTLES WITH TRUMP OVER ’60 MINUTES’ CONTROVERSY FOR $16 MILLION
“Trump has a long history of filing frivolous lawsuits to intimidate critics, and his targets have a long history of capitulating to avoid legal headaches. And here, he had the added tactic of using the FCC and its review of the multibillion-dollar Paramount-Skydance merger to bring added pressure to bear,” FIRE chief counsel Bob Corn-Revere said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner.
“Behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated,” he added. “This settlement will only embolden the president to continue his flurry of baseless lawsuits against the press and against the American people’s ability to hear the news free from government intrusion.”