Paramount Global executives have held internal discussions about settling a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over a CBS News interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, according to people familiar with the situation, a sign of larger efforts to dial down tensions with the incoming president.
Paramount, owner of CBS, its namesake studio and several cable channels, has a major piece of business in front of the new administration: its planned merger with Skydance Media. It’s become clear to executives at both companies that Trump’s dissatisfaction with CBS News will make the review tougher than they anticipated, and that they’ll likely need to offer concessions to win approval, people familiar with the situation said.
This is ridiculous. When ABC settled its lawsuit against Trump there was at least a colorable argument that they had libeled him. In this case there's nothing. Trump argues that CBS edited an interview with Kamala Harris to make her look good, which is nothing actionable even if it's true. This case was never going anywhere.
Settling would be a bribe in all but name—or maybe extortion if Trump tried to follow through in his official capacity. This is like being ruled by the Corleone family.
Ah, and this is just the start. Everyone is getting ready to bribe baby, bribe!
This is what the people voted for.
It's not a bribe. It's a facilitation fee. Quite common in certain parts of the world. For example:
https://www.in-formality.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dash_(Nigeria)#:~:text=A%20gratuity%20is%20also%20a,same%20terms%20as%20a%20bribe.
Yep. It's all about the Benjamins, baby.
OTOH, it couldn't be happening to a nicer bunch of people.
If it happens to Jeff Zucker I might die of bliss.
It's scarey how fast people will capitulate to a man like Donald Trump. Seeing them suffer is of little comfort when such a horrible precedent is set, with even worse ones to come. He's not even president yet and the corruption has already started.
+10,
A few million does not constitute suffering. It isn't even their money, it's corporate money.
"This is like being ruled by the Corleone family."
Not yet. But after two years with Kash Patel as director of the FBI (so they will have the time to remove from the FBI anybody with integrity), it will be like the Corleone Family.
Of course it's a bribe. It's also the new normal. What else did anyone expect? And, if the president does it, it's not illegal.
I remember how we all laughed and laughed when Nixon said that. Just took the Supreme Court fifty years to catch up with Dick's thinking.
Re: the new normal. And yet, viewership reputedly plummeted when Joe'n'Mika made their pilgrimmage to the Maralago Palace. Literally hundreds of thousands of subscribers dropped the Washington Post when it refused to issue a presidential endorsement. More have left due to one of its cartoonists quitting.
I don't know about ABC; however, folks should turn off CBS if its current bribe plan goes through. There are plenty of independent and foreign sources for news, and they don't go in for "infotainment."
But the Corleones had (at least ostensibly) a code of honor. Drumpy doesn'teven pretend to.
Only in the movie (and the book). In reality, not so much.
I don’t even know what to say about this anymore. The enemy is evil. I had a rep in my home this morning to measure for new carpeting and I mentioned that I was off work Monday for the holiday. The old guy said it was Inauguration Day. I didn’t reply meaningfully. I guess I shouldn’t do business with them! It felt like a loyalty test.
What do you think?
The carpets they install will probably stink of graft after a few weeks. Best to look elsewhere.
I guess I already knew that the CBS News of my youth was dead. It’s still sad to see its corpse desecrated like this.
It's a bribe. Everyone knows that. But CBS is not in it to defend the rule of law, or fight for our democracy, or to defend the "great American Experiment." They are in it strictly to make money, and there is no limit at all on how much money they want to make. As long as they offer enough cash, they will not be held accountable (by the Trump administration), so there's nothing to lose. As for their reputation with the public, fuck 'em. Most of the public won't even notice, and the rest will accept that CBS "settled" to avoid expensive litigation -- but they know they were in the right and would have won in the end.
For that matter, will CBS News even cover this story? 60 Minutes?
We will see corruption everywhere with this administration. Using the threat of legal action (including ant-trust on Big Tech) to force payment one way or another.
Trump's second term will be much worse than the first. If not an exit from NATO, then a severe diminution of the alliance. Russia gets a lot of Ukraine (and all after a few more years). National Security compromised.
A useful summary description of Trump2 is
"Power wielded by the rich and connected. Media chastened and meek. Regulation, public disapproval, norms, and possibly even court rulings will be ignored. Elections will be challenged using spurious charges*. Trump doing whatever he wants whenever he wants."
Half the nation is responsible for this. (Half the voting population.) And a lot of them won't care. They voted for the reality show, "Governed by a Selfish Unpredictable Moron".
* as before but this time some will be successful because honest brokers in the election process have been hounded out of office, or are timid due to the ever present threat of violence.
Trump has always been extremely litigious. Now he has the justice department, a neutered legislature and SCOTUS backing him up. He's a scumbag, expect scumbag moves.
What's the new Washington Post motto???
Trumpism thrives in darkness?
Trump ùber alles.
There’s nothing in the dark that isn’t there in the light, so don’t worry, be happy…
Amazon workers are trying to unionize, and we can't have that.
It hasn't changed. "Democracy dies in darkness." Only difference is, now it's a mission statement.
I thought Michael Corleone at least tried to go legit?
Well yes, that's the "being elected president so I'm immune from prosecution" bit.
It looks like Trump and/or his family devoted a good part of his out-years to devising ways to monetise both his candidature and the presidency. From billions of dollars in shares in a worthless Truth Social through straightforward bribes labelled campaign donations and a digital currency scam I don't pretend to understand to meritless court actions where the defendant takes a dive, the money is rolling in so quickly I doubt anyone can keep track of it.
Trump told an interviewer once, a long time ago, that money was the only thing that got him genuinely excited. It was one of the few times he told the truth.
If RFK, jr is right that he got his brain worm from underdone pork this is what it could look like,
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1i3di19/an_insane_finding_on_an_xray/
and he could pass it on to others through unprotected sex.
Brain sex.
The little death.
Does anyone not think that we're sleepwalking into something much, much worse than just grift? How long before Trump or one of his brownshirts sue, or the justice dept. files charges against a Democrat for doing....whatever? How long until every major media org preemptively "reviews" every article or broadcast or interview? How long before any Dem win of any import (or not) is slammed with 'challenges' and lawsuits? Movies? Magazine articles? How long before people are being accused and charged with being some version of "enemy of the state"? Does anyone really think that this, or something very much like it, is not going to happen?
We are barreling into the void, into something very, very bad. I feel like it's similar to climate change - the great majority aren't affected, we're safe and comfortable, so even though we know it's "bad" we're insulated, our institutions are still strong, everything's going to be ok.... No. The dominoes are falling - the government is now effectively a dictatorship (no Republicans - none, zero, zilch - are going to stand up to TrumpCo and the powers behind it) where the major actants are openly promising to rule as authoritarians; the largest corporations in the country are prostrating and paying to play with the dictatorship; the largest media orgs are crumbling in abject submission before our eyes...but it's all explainable, right? Self interest isn't autocracy, it's free enterprise, right?
No. We are in deep, deep shit, and it's going to become clear how deep soon, a lot sooner than anyone wants to think.
+1
Don’t worry. The rich people who funded all this will be able to escape to Somewhere Else after the country becomes irretrievably destroyed. And since they are The Only People That Matter, it’ll be a happily ever after ending for America.
"How long before Trump or one of his brownshirts sue, or the justice dept. files charges against a Democrat for doing....whatever?"
That is guaranteed to happen before the 2028 elections, will mainly be directed against the leading democrat candidtaes for president, and will include false statements and fabricated evidence to ensure it works.
Not obvious about the 2026 elections, they will have to do some re-organization in the FBI and other agencies and that takes time. Probably will go against some congress candidates too in 2028.
I ordered some black wristbands to start wearing on Monday while I listen to the I Have A Dream speech instead of his apocalyptic twaddle.
I'll take it off whenever he strokes out.
+1
Which network carried The Apprentice? NBC? Could I sue them for making Trump look marginally coherent?
This is like being ruled by the Corleone family.
Worse. Don Corleone didn't have presidential immunity, nor were government agencies like the FBI and the IRS at his beck and call. But Don Trump has all of this. Plus the military.
IANAL, but the reading I did says that public figures suing for libel must establish not only the falsity of the statement(s), but also ‘actual malice’. That's a difficult hurdle.