“[Paramount] Board members are cognizant that a large settlement could possibly be considered as one thing of a payoff to the president to maneuver the Skydance merger over the end line, educated sources have stated,” the Los Angeles Instances wrote. Carr reportedly stated this week that “the settlement and any discussions round that don’t have anything to do with the work that we’re doing on the FCC.”
In a press release supplied to Ars at the moment, Paramount stated the “lawsuit is totally separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval course of. We’ll abide by the authorized course of to defend our case.”
As we’ve described previously, the allegations being examined by the FCC do not seem to fulfill the company’s historic normal for figuring out {that a} information station deliberately distorted the information. The criticism to the FCC and Trump’s lawsuit each concentrate on how CBS aired two completely different solutions given by Harris to the identical query about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one on 60 Minutes and the opposite on Face the Nation. However CBS provided an unedited transcript and digicam feeds of the interview that present that the 2 solutions have been simply two completely different sentences from the identical response.
Whereas in court filings Paramount defended CBS’s First Modification rights over editorial content material, 60 Minutes Govt Producer Invoice Owens resigned final week and alleged that he had misplaced editorial independence. Owens reportedly informed workers in a memo that “over the previous months, it has develop into clear that I’d not be allowed to run the present as I’ve at all times run it, to make unbiased choices primarily based on what was proper for 60 Minutes, proper for the viewers.”
This previous weekend, journalist Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes criticized Paramount in an uncommon on-air section. “Our father or mother firm, Paramount, is attempting to finish a merger,” Pelley stated. “The Trump administration should approve it. Paramount started to oversee our content material in new methods. None of our tales has been blocked, however Invoice felt he misplaced the independence that sincere journalism requires. Nobody right here is comfortable about it. However in resigning, Invoice proved one factor: He was the proper particular person to guide 60 Minutes all alongside.”