Former CBS news anchor Dan Rather was very critical of the agreement between Paramount Global and Donald Trump, who settled a lawsuit related to a segment of the renowned program “60 Minutes” after the company agreed to pay him 16 million dollars.
In an interview with Variety, Rather described the decision as alarming for the practice of journalism in the United States.
The Paramount Global conglomerate owns CBS, as well as Paramount Pictures; the streaming services Paramount+ and Pluto TV, and channels like MTV and Nickelodeon.
What was the agreement between CBS and Trump?
The lawsuit was filed by Trump himself, who accused the program “60 Minutes” of intentionally manipulating an interview with Kamala Harris during the presidential campaign.
However, several legal analysts agreed that the case lacked strength and would not have prospered under the protection of the freedom of the press as dictated by the First Amendment of the Constitution.
Several press articles questioned the unprecedented decision by CBS and Paramount, unprecedented in major US media, and described it as a capitulation to Trump’s authoritarian and intimidating style with traditional press.
What did Dan Rather say about CBS’s decision?
“It’s a sad day for journalism. It’s a sad day for ’60 Minutes’ and for CBS News,” Rather declared in an interview with Variety. The journalist pointed out that the resolution represents a surrender to political and economic pressures. “I hope people read the details of this and understand what it was: a distortion by the president and a bowing down and saying ‘yes, sir’ by the billionaire corporate owners,” said the former host of the CBS newscast for 24 years.
Rather expressed his support for his former colleagues at CBS News and “60 Minutes,” highlighting that they fought until the end within their capabilities.
Although he regretted the decision, Rather admitted that he was not surprised. The general interpretation is that Paramount accepted the payment as part of a strategy to obtain regulatory approval from the FCC —controlled by the Trump administration— in the context of the merger with Skydance, an agreement of over 8 billion dollars. “Big billionaire businessmen make decisions based on money. We can always expect them to make an exception when it comes to press freedom, but this time it wasn’t the case,” said the respected journalist.
According to Rather, Trump used his position to pressure the company: “He is forcing an entire news organization to pay millions of dollars for doing something protected by the Constitution like free and independent journalism. What happened today was a capitulation. And that’s exactly what it was: a surrender to the president’s extortion,” he told Variety.
According to information from the White House, the 16 million that CBS will pay will go towards a future library for President Trump, the same theoretical destination that the Boeing 747-8 gifted to him by Qatar will have.
Rather also addressed the long-term implications that this case could have for American democracy by asking, “what kind of country are we going to have if major news organizations continue to kneel before power and stop trying to hold the powerful accountable, then we all lose.”