President Donald Trump clinched a significant win over the fake news press. The dam has broken—they can’t lie about him with impunity anymore, nor can they tip the scales. CBS News’ 60 Minutes did just that by editing an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. It was a trainwreck. Even the heavily edited portions couldn't hide her disposition as a mental invalid. These clips, for which CBS got caught red-handed, were at the focal point of Trump’s lawsuit, which he claimed misled viewers. All the right people are made about the $16 million settlement Paramount, CBS parent company, struck with the president.
CNN’s Brian Stelter fumed over the decision:
Brian “Cheap Fakes” Stelter melts down over Paramount’s $16M settlement with Trump.
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) July 2, 2025
“CBS did nothing wrong!"
Fake News in shambles. pic.twitter.com/wYM3VGvMZW
And The New York Times’ seething over this news was also grade-A entertainment (via NYT):
For many veteran correspondents at “60 Minutes,” paying even $1 to settle a left-field lawsuit from an aggrieved president seemed too high a price.
At stake, they believed, was the long-term credibility of the country’s most decorated and most-watched television news program, a journalistic institution since 1968 that prided itself on holding elected leaders to account.
Late Tuesday, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, concluded differently. It agreed to pay $16 million so President Trump would drop a lawsuit that essentially boiled down to a politician’s gripe: that “60 Minutes” had edited an interview with his 2024 opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, in a manner that he did not like.
[…]
“Today is a dark day for press freedom,” said Seth Stern, the director of advocacy at the nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation. He called Paramount’s decision “spineless” and “an invitation” for the president to target other news outlets. Two Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden, referred to the settlement as a bribe and called for an investigation and possible criminal charges.
[…]
Mr. Trump claimed that CBS’s actions misled viewers and were aimed at tipping the scales in favor of the Democratic Party. A spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team said the settlement “holds the Fake News media accountable for their wrongdoing and deceit.” As part of the settlement, CBS said that “60 Minutes” would release transcripts of future interviews with presidential candidates.
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Oh, yes, cope and seethe. We win; you lose. It’s that simple. It’s only a dark day because once again, you people, with your incompetence, bias, and bad decision-making, led to this litigious moment. It dovetails off ABC News’ settlement with Trump over host George Stephanopoulos repeating the false claim that the president was held liable for rape in the E. Jean Carroll civil trial.
Well, Stephanopoulos said over and over and over that Trump had been found liable for rape when a jury explicitly said Carroll had not proven that, even by the low standard of the trial. https://t.co/FEoKhm8Gkn pic.twitter.com/VyG7f545Da
— Byron York (@ByronYork) December 14, 2024
Also, a settlement was likely hashed out since discovery might’ve led to the end of 60 Minutes:
I am sold on @redsteeze’s theory that discovery would be worse for them than settlement. https://t.co/ytZHJRMLHR
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) July 2, 2025
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