Dan Rather has slammed Paramount Global’s $16 million legal settlement with the Trump administration as “extortion by the president” and a “kneeling-down and saying, ‘Yes, Sir,’ by billionaire corporate owners.”
The legendary CBS News anchor told Variety on Wednesday he was “disappointed” but “not surprised” at the decision to settle the lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.
Trump had demanded $20 billion, claiming the network had distorted the Harris interview by editing a garbled sentence of her talking about Israel’s war in Gaza. 60 Minutes claimed the editing was standard journalistic practice and done purely for timing reasons.
The settlement means Paramount will pay $16 million to Trump’s presidential library, but the media company does not need to apologize.
The fee matches the sum Disney paid Trump’s library last year to settle his defamation suit over an interview with GOP Rep. Nancy Mace by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
Rather, 93, told Variety of the situation involving his former network, “It’s a sad day for journalism. It’s a sad day for 60 Minutes and CBS News. I hope people will read the details of this and understand what it was. It was distortion by the president and a kneeling-down and saying, ‘Yes, Sir,’ by billionaire corporate owners.”
The famed journalist also insisted Paramount did not have to settle the case. “You settle a lawsuit when you’ve done something wrong,” Rather said. “60 Minutes did nothing wrong. It followed accepted journalistic practices. Lawyers almost unanimously said the case wouldn’t stand up in court.”
The settlement came as David Ellison’s Skydance Media are negotiating an $8 billion acquisition of Paramount, which needs approval from the Trump-controlled Federal Communications Commission. Paramount has insisted the lawsuit is separate to the Skydance merger.
“Big billionaire business people make decisions about money,” Rather said. “We could always hope that they will make an exception when it comes to freedom of the press, but it wasn’t to be.
Rather, who anchored CBS News for 24 years, said, “Trump knew if he put the pressure on and threatened, and just held, that they would fold, because there’s too much money on the table.”
He added, “Trump is now forcing a whole news organization to pay millions of dollars for doing something protected by the Constitution — which is, of course, free and independent reporting. Now, you take today’s sellout. And that’s what it was: It was a sellout to extortion by the president. Who can now say where all this ends?”
The White House has been contacted for comment.
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