President Donald Trump has rejected a settlement offer of $15 million from Paramount after he sued the company over a 60 Minutes interview last year with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Fox News Digital confirmed that Trump rejected a $15 million offer to settle his lawsuit, according to a source familiar with the matter. The president’s legal team is also demanding at least $25 million and an apology from CBS News. Trump’s attorneys even floated another lawsuit against the company.
Last October, Trump sued CBS News and Paramount for $10 billion over allegations of election interference involving the 60 Minutes interview of then-Vice President Kamala Harris that aired weeks before the presidential election -the amount has since jumped to $20 billion. (RELATED: Trump Doubles Damages In CBS 60 Minutes Lawsuit, Now Seeks $20 Billion)
The lawsuit alleges CBS News deceitfully edited an exchange Harris had with 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker, who asked her why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t “listening” to the Biden administration. Harris was widely mocked for the “word salad” answer that aired in a preview clip of the interview on Face the Nation. (RELATED: FCC Releases CBS News’ Raw 60 Minutes Transcript From Kamala Interview)
However, when the same question aired during a primetime special on the network, Harris had a different, more concise response. Critics at the time accused CBS News of deceitfully editing Harris’ “word salad” answer to shield the Democratic nominee from further backlash leading up to Election Day.
The raw transcript and footage released earlier this year by the FCC showed that both sets of Harris’ comments came from the same response, but CBS News had aired only the first half of her response in the “Face the Nation” preview clip and aired the second half during the primetime special.
CBS News has denied any wrongdoing and stands by the broadcast and its reporting.
The lawsuit is just the latest a string of litigation Trump has brought against media companies. In December, ABC settled a defamation lawsuit by giving $15 million to Trump’s presidential foundation and issuing an apology.
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The CBS offer of $15 million is a chump-change insult to Trump and Conservatives. The going rate for defamation settlement is $500 million ot $1.5 billion. The Fox News- Dominion systems case went for $870 million, and the various defamation suits and judgments against Trump and Republicans went for hundreds of millions of dollars. Admittedly, these cases were heard by Leftist judges, but even now, judicial precedents still have some value.
What the Democratic House Organs, such as CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, etc, have done to Trump, his family, and his supporters is a thousand times worse than anything conservatives have done to them. The Press conferences with Trump would have gotten the questioners (none dare call them journalists) fired, if not imprisoned.
So the settlement of defamation suits should go at market rates, with the proceeds used to compensate the ruined lives and reputations of the victims of media defamation and to prevent such breaches of Freedom of Expression from occurring again. After all, the First Amendment is about Freedom of Expression. Freedom of the Press is an instance of that. It is inconceivable that the Founding Fathers would have protected a bunch of Corporate monopolistic bullies and dictators from suppressing the Freedom of Expression of others.
☭BS, AB☭, MSNB☭ all have issues.