A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The parent company of CBS News, Paramount Global, is settling a lawsuit brought by President Trump over edits "60 Minutes" made to an interview last year with former Vice President Kamala Harris. His suit argued CBS aired different edits of portions of the interview to deceive voters. Paramount will pay $16 million, which will be directed toward Trump's future presidential library and his legal costs. CBS will not apologize as part of the deal, but "60 Minutes" will release transcripts of its interviews with presidential candidates in the future.
On the line is Meg James, senior entertainment industry writer for the Los Angeles Times. So Meg, news shows really only rarely air complete, unedited interviews, and Trump won the election. So what specifically did the president argue in his efforts to demonstrate that he somehow was harmed?
MEG JAMES: He felt that CBS manipulated the interview to make former Vice President Kamala Harris appear smarter, helping her election chances. He filed the lawsuit before the election and continued to pursue it vigorously, even after he won.
MARTÍNEZ: So why was this important, then, for Paramount to settle?
JAMES: Paramount leaders strongly felt that they needed to settle this case. They are in the process of being sold, and the federal review of their pending deal - their sale to David Ellison's Skydance Media - has really gotten bogged down. A lot of people believe that the reason why was because of this lawsuit hanging over Paramount's head. So the leaders of Paramount felt, in order to move forward with this sale, they needed to get rid of or settle this lawsuit.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, we saw several high-level departures at CBS News and also public criticism from "60 Minutes" correspondences' corporate oversight of the show increase. Do you expect that pushback will continue?
JAMES: Yes, I do believe so. Now, for its part, Paramount said that it has treated the lawsuit settlement and the FCC review as two separate and distinct matters. But within the company and outside the company, very few people feel like CBS would have settled unless they wanted to get this deal approved. First Amendment experts roundly felt that this was a very winnable case for CBS.
MARTÍNEZ: How do you think this compares to other settlements Donald Trump has gotten from networks and his other efforts to attack media organizations?
JAMES: Yes. This is the exact same amount that Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC News, agreed to pay President Trump prior to him taking office. But in the ABC case, they did have some exposure because they inaccurately described a jury verdict in a civil case that President Trump had faced years ago. In the CBS case, there was no evidence of wrongdoing. In fact, there is a widespread understanding that you have to edit these interviews down to make them fit the airtime.
MARTÍNEZ: That is Meg James of the Los Angeles Times. Meg, thank you.
JAMES: Thank you, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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