Fascinating news this afternoon that CBS and its parent company Paramount are considering settling a lawsuit Trump filed against them late last year alleging “election interference” and demanding $10 billion in damages. We know there’s been a lot of this of late. ABC settled an incredibly weak case Trump brought over George Stephanopoulos’s correct use of the word “rape” to describe what a jury in New York concluded Trump had done to E. Jean Carroll. But there’s weak and there’s weak. The suit against CBS isn’t weak. It’s absurd. There’s no tort of editing. But Paramount is considering settling and generally going full Oprah cash & prizes for Donald Trump. This WSJ article which broke the news tells us what the issue is: CBS has a merger its trying to get approved. And the Trump team, including the incoming FCC chair Brendan Carr (who has openly promised to abuse his power starting on day one) have made it clear that companies have to give Trump cash and prizes if they don’t want trouble.
CBS and Paramount have gotten the message.
People toss out jargon about ‘obeying in advance’. But there’s a much immediate issue here. CBS still has a news division, I think. If they’re making clear they’re this desperate to give Trump cash and prizes, particularly with their news division, everyone should be on notice that they’re going to be looking for opportunities to stick it to Democrats as a way to grease the skids for their merger deal. They’re essentially saying it out loud. There’s no other way to interpret this.
I don’t know if Democrats should boycott CBS. But any Democrat going on CBS should make sure to say on air that CBS News has decided to curry favor with Trump and Carr on the merger deal.
