“[The lawsuit] has absolutely no merit and it cannot stand,” Sanders and his allies wrote in the letter to Paramount’s controlling shareholder.
Paramount Global is purportedly facing increased pressure from liberal lawmakers and activists as it considers settling a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump.
According to FOX News, attorneys for Trump and Paramount Global entered mediation last week. If mediation succeeds, they could reach an out-of-court settlement, despite most legal experts saying that Trump’s lawsuit holds little merit. Some politicians, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have suggested that any settlement offered by Paramount is tantamount to court-sanctioned bribery.
Trump, who filed his lawsuit against CBS and parent company Paramount last November, claims that a 2024 interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris had been edited to frame her in a more positive light—a distortion that Trump has construed as “media interference.”
In a statement, Sanders, Warren, and other congresspeople made a direct plea to Paramount Global controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, telling her that settling Trump’s lawsuit would be a “grave mistake” with far-reaching consequences for media freedom.
“[The lawsuit] has absolutely no merit and it cannot stand,” Sanders and his allies wrote in the letter to Redstone.
“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,” they said. ‘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.”
“Stand up for freedom of the press and our democracy,” the letter said.
FOX News notes that Redstone had previously indicated her willingness to settle the lawsuit, potentially with the hope that it would dissuade the Trump administration from opposing Paramount’s planned merger with Skydance Media.
Redstone, says FOX News, reportedly wanted to “keep tabs” on upcoming CBS segments involving Trump and allegedly urged network executives to delay sensitive reporting on the president until after the merger had concluded. This led to “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens abruptly resigning; in his resignation, Owens said that Redstone’s new rules would have made it impossible to maintain editorial independence.
Some of CBS’s own hosts have publicly criticized Paramount’s position on the settlement negotiations.
“There are reports that the owner of this company called the president—or called the chairman of this company—and said, ‘Yeah, you’ve got to get the news to lay off any bad Trump stories,’” Stephen Colbert said during a “Late Show” exchange with guest Rachel Maddow. “And the word is that that was not passed on to the news division, I’m happy to say.”
Sources
Bernie Sanders urges Paramount not to ‘capitulate’ to Trump by settling 60 Minutes suit
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