If it weren’t enough that CBS News shelled out $16 million to Donald Trump to settle a lawsuit most legal experts say they could’ve easily won, the network added insult to injury by abruptly canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert—one of Trump’s most consistent satirical critics. Now it appears the new owners of CBS have made even more spineless concessions to appease Trump.
Let’s wrap our minds around the timing:
· July 1: CBS’ current owner, Paramount, agrees to pay $16-million to the future Trump library to settle a lawsuit that every journalist and every First Amendment lawyer in the country will tell you CBS could have easily won had they fought for their news department’s journalistic principles.
· July 17: CBS cancels The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, who has lampooned Trump on a nightly basis.
· July 22: The settlement with Trump becomes official.
· July 24: The Federal Communications Commission formally approves the sale of Paramount/CBS to its new owners, Skydance. Voila! Nothing to see here folks! A simple coincidence that the big money deal goes through ONE DAY after the lawsuit is officially settled.
It gets worse
You, the discerning reader, can smell something off. Turns out, it reeks even worse than it first appeared.
Trump boasted on social media:
“Paramount/CBS/60 Minutes have today paid $16 Million Dollars in settlement, and we also anticipate receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars.”
Just imagine what kind of “advertising” that might be. More than likely, CBS will be running Public Service Announcements touting conservative causes that Trump favors.
Paramount denied any additional concessions beyond $16 million, but Skydance, the new owners, declined to comment. Which begs the question: what kind of wink-and-nod deal may have been struck behind closed doors to secure the sale?
And now we learn, courtesy of Trump’s FCC chair Brendan Carr, that what really “made the difference” for him in approving the sale was a promise by CBS to get rid of diversity initiatives and programming “bias.”
The FCC approved the deal in a 2-1 vote. The lone dissenting vote was commissioner Anna Gomez, who, according to Mediaite, accused the supposedly independent FCC of using “its vast power to pressure Paramount to broker a private legal settlement and further erode press freedom.”
But Trump’s puppet running the FCC, Brendan Carr, says his decision to approve the sale was made easier by Skydance promising to install an official at CBS News who would monitor journalistic fairness while avoiding diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the network.
Carr said the scary part out loud, telling CNBC,
“I think President Trump is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape and the way he’s doing that is when he ran for election, he ran directly at these legacy broadcast media outlets, ABC, NBC, CBS. For years, you know, government officials just allowed those entities with execs sitting in Hollywood, in New York to dictate the political narrative. And he has fundamentally changed the game. And you see that really having consequences that are just rushing all through the media.”
Folks, this is a big problem. Our country, our very democracy, depends on a free and independent news media telling Americans what’s really going on. Journalists are supposed to hold those in power accountable, Republican or Democrat. When reporters do tough stories on Trump, stories he doesn’t like, he calls it political bias. Most of the time, it’s not biased. It’s fact-based, it’s well-sourced, and it’s true. Trump calling it biased doesn’t make it so.
Who can we trust?
When a major news organization like CBS News, with its long history of trustworthy correspondents like Murrow and Cronkite, suddenly bends to political pressure, we Americans need to be on guard. We need to carefully watch where we get our news. Who can we trust? Who has motives, financial or otherwise, to only feed us the approved company line?
CBS News, ABC News, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times have all bent the knee in some way. So far, NBC News, the New York Times, the Associated Press and most local TV newsrooms have not. Here’s to hoping the Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer continue to fight against Trump’s baseless lawsuit.
So much damage done in a mere six months. I shudder to think where we’re going to be after another 42 months of “consequences that are just rushing through all the media.”
A proud member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative.
Another excellent article, Dave. Walter and Eric must be agitating in their graves. I would say, “Be afraid. Be very, VERY afraid.” But fear doesn’t get us anywhere. What we need is a march on Washington. (On the other hand, what would their goons do to marchers who got a little out of line or who carried signs DJT didn’t like?) Very concerning.
Totally on point Dave. Make good trouble!