Paramount is currently negotiating a settlement regarding a $10 billion lawsuit filed by Donald Trump against CBS News and “60 Minutes,” as reported by the New York Times on Thursday.
According to the Times, Paramount executives believe that reaching a settlement could reduce the chances of the Trump administration obstructing their planned merger with Skydance.
Two sources close to Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, informed the Times that she “strongly supports the effort to settle.”
Paramount representatives chose not to comment when approached by TheWrap.
If Paramount successfully settles, it would align with ABC and Meta, both of whom decided to cooperate with the incoming 47th president instead of pursuing prolonged litigation.
Recently, Meta agreed to pay $25 million to resolve Trump’s lawsuit concerning his bans from Facebook and Instagram following the January 6 Capitol riots.
Furthermore, last month the Times reported that Disney CEO Bob Iger approved a $15 million settlement to avert a protracted legal conflict and mitigate Trump’s “animus” during his second term.
Disney was concerned that this “worst case scenario,” as described by the Times, could serve as a platform for Trump and his allies to overturn the landmark First Amendment decision in New York Times v. Sullivan. This pivotal ruling from 1964, along with several subsequent cases, has made it significantly more difficult for public figures like Trump to succeed in libel lawsuits.
In his October lawsuit against CBS News, Trump accused the network of “deceptive doctoring” in a segment featuring his political rival Kamala Harris.
The lawsuit also claimed that the “60 Minutes” interview constituted a form of “news distortion” aimed at tipping the scales in favor of the Democratic Party.
The post Paramount in Settlement Talks With Trump Over $10 Billion ’60 Minutes’ Lawsuit was originally published on TheWrap.
