Another CBS News star has joined the revolt against the network’s parent company for bending to President Donald Trump.
John Dickerson delivered a scathing monologue on a Wednesday episode of CBS Evening News Plus after Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to Trump’s presidential library to end his $20 billion lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris last year.
“We pride ourselves on our BS detector, so it ought to work on ourselves, too,” Dickerson said. “When it doesn’t, the stakes are real: a loss of public trust, the spread of misinformation.”
“The obstacles to getting it right are many,” he went on. “The Paramount settlement poses a new obstacle: can you hold power to account after paying it millions? Can an audience trust you when it thinks you’ve traded away that trust? The audience will decide that.”
Trump’s lawsuit stemmed from an October 2024 interview that he claimed was deceptively edited by 60 Minutes to make Harris’ response to a question about Israel appear more favorable. The program later released a full transcript, revealing that a teaser for the interview showed one portion of her answer while the full episode aired the other. The show said it made a standard editing decision to fit the time slot.
“Reporters try to find order in chaos,” Dickerson said. “We prefer to explain the cause of a bombing, the intent of a bill, the marvel of a new discovery. Putting chaos in preliminary order helps viewers make sense of their world… Our job is to show up, to honor what we witness on behalf of the people we witness it for.”
Though Paramount refused to apologize or express regret, it handed Trump another victory in his crusade against media outlets he perceives as political enemies. Paramount also denied that the settlement had anything to do with a pending merger with Skydance, which will require approval from the Trump administration.
The company’s decision to cave in has drawn criticism from other big names at CBS, including correspondent Bill Whitaker, who conducted the Harris interview, and legendary anchor Dan Rather.
Whitaker reportedly appeared “teary-eyed” when he joined a staff meeting after the settlement. Rather branded the settlement an “extortion by the president” and a “kneeling-down and saying, ‘Yes, Sir,’ by billionaire corporate owners.”
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