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Paramount is ready to conclude an agreement to resolve the Donald Trump trial of $ 20 billion against CBS News, after the owner of the studio, Shari Redstone, was “concerned” by the balance of the program in recent months.
Primordial was ready to settle the pursuit of Trump, which alleys the flagship product of CBS 60 minutes The news program defamed it by modifying to deceptivate an interview with its political opponent Kamala Harris last year, said two people familiar with the issue.
The board of directors of Paramount has drawn up financial conditions for a potential settlement at a meeting of April 18, the people said. The possible regulations could be in the tens of millions of dollars, said one of the people. Lawyers for both parties were to start mediation on Wednesday.
CBS lawyers said Trump's trial was baseless and that some of his own journalists denounced the potential agreement as a white house capitulation by one of the country's best known press groups.
Opening to a colony comes after Redstone, the billionaire who controls Paramount, has become frustrated by the tone of CBS coverage in recent months, said a person familiar with his reflection.
“She has been concerned for some time now on the balance of CBS news,” said the person. Redstone, who participated in organizations fighting against anti-Semitism after the attack on Hamas, the attack of October 7, 2023, disputed the coverage of CBS of the War of Israel-Hamas last year. She raised her criticism to a conference in October.
Although Redstone has challenged the deliberations of the Paramount Board on the regulations, it favored an agreement. “We cannot just be stopped, we have to advance something,” Redstone told the board of directors, said a person familiar with the issue.
Redstone and his family are also online to receive a billion dollars if the Trump administration approves the agreed merger of Paramount with Hollywood Studio Skydance. The President’s media regulator, Brendan Carr, has been examining the agreement for several months.
Redstone was shaken after Trump unleashed At CBS 60 minutes April 13 after broadcasting stories on Ukraine and Greenland. She called CBS CEO George Cheeks, asking what other stories were in preparation, said a person familiar with the issue.
“She did not ask for changes to the stories, all she asked for is that they are just and balanced,” said a person close to Redstone. “His thought was:” We are in the eye of the storm now. He published on “” pieces, added the person.
Journalists from the CBS editorial room took the movements of Redstone as an example of a billionaire owner mixing with the editorial strategy. In the past year, the founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos and the billionaire Pharmace Likewise, I made angry the editorial rooms At Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, respectively.
60 minutes Top producer Bill Owens to leave Last week, to protest against what he said, a journalistic loss of independence. In an unusual air reprimand, 60 minutes The anchor Scott Pelley finished the broadcast on Sunday by telling viewers that Paramount had started to “supervise our content of new ways” when he was trying to finish a merger.
Paramount's enigma highlights the unusual power that the American president has exercised on American companies.
CARR denies the CBS trial assigned its deliberation on the parameter parameter agreement. But Paramount leaders think the two processes are linked.
The saga has aroused criticism of journalists outside of CBS, who say that the Dealent of Paramount to Trump would make permanent damage to the press organization.
“In the capitulation (Redstone would be) damaging the value of the assets which it tries to sell, by saying essentially to the world that one of the most legendary brands of the news can be silenced, manipulated or humiliated when it is shipped,” said Gabriel Kahn, a former editor of Wall Street Journal who is now a professor at the University of South California.
60 minutes has been an element of American fairs since the 1970s and the journalistic legendary house such as Walter Cronkite. The program still brings 7 million viewers on Sunday evening. He has continued to broadcast in -depth coverage of the Trump administration in recent weeks.
“In journalism, money is confidence,” said Kahn. “CBS News is one of the few places to maintain a high level of confidence and a strong reputation (in the United States).”
The New York Times previously reported the details of Paramount plans and the April Council meeting.
Last year, Trump continued ABC News after the George Stephanopoulos anchor falsely declared that Trump had been tried “rape”. Disney, which owns ABC, in December Paid $ 15 million At Trump's presidential library to settle the defamation trial.
Trump hit CBS again on Wednesday when mediation was starting.
“The case we have against 60 minutes, CBS and Paramount is a real winner. They cheated and defrauded the American people at levels never seen before in the political arena,” he wrote on his social social media platform. “CBS is out of control, at levels never seen before, and they should pay a high price for this. Make America again excellent! ”
Additional report by Christopher Grimes
