It looks like the settlement will amount to around 16 million dollars when all is tallied up, more than what ABC paid for George Stephanopoulos repeatedly (but not maliciously, oh no, never that!) calling Donald Trump a “rapist” on national TV. Several cynics were telling me today that this was “a drop in the bucket” for Paramount—it doesn’t matter. The settlement is an admission of wrongdoing, and what CBS and “60 Minutes” did by stealth editing a Kamala Harris interview late in the Presidential campaign to make her sound like less of an idiot was wrong, another “enemy of the people” act, and a blatant attempt to mislead voters and support the Democratic Party under the guise of journalism.
More important than the symbolism of the money perhaps is CBS’s promise to install a mandatory new rule requiring the network to promptly release full, unedited transcripts of future Presidential candidate interviews. It is the “Trump Rule.” That a television news division had to be forced into institutionalizing such transparency tells us all we need to know about the dismal state of broadcast journalism.
I know I’ve been saying this kind of thing a lot lately, but I don’t understand how any American or American journalist can find fault with this result. I kept reading that “60 Minutes” “allegedly” edited the Harris interview to mislead viewers. There is no “allegedly”: that’s what they did; the transcript proved it Only brain lesions, ignorance or pathological dishonesty could lead one to believe the effort to enhance Harris’s image wasn’t deliberate election interference, It was a direct assault on democracy, open and undeniable.
But that’s “the enemy of the people” for you. Just look at how other members of the Axis of Unethical Conduct media cabal are reporting on the settlement. “CBS is the latest news giant to bend to Trump’s power,” says NPR. “What seemed possible — but hard to believe — before President Trump took office once more has now taken shape: A number of corporate and individual owners of media that promise to hold power to account have instead bowed to it,” the government-funded Democratic Party mouthpiece whines. So too have the chiefs of two major social media platforms — among the richest people on the planet.” “Bowing to it”—when the President properly uses his legitimate power to stop destructive abuse of the Fourth Estate’s privilege, and the betrayal of its necessary role in a healthy democracy. Of course, NPR has long been guilty of the same offenses.
Another of the “usual suspects,” the Washington Post, bleated, “How Trump’s media war brought Paramount to its knees:Tuesday night’s $16 million settlement with Trump followed months of tension between CBS’s journalistic mission and its corporate interest.” What “journalistic mission”? CBS abandoned its legitimate mission—informing the public—when it decided to use “60 Minutes” as a Harris campaign disinformation weapon.
Just as the Trump Administration is pledged to end social media censorship, woke indoctrination and racial discrimination in higher education, and partisan corruption in the law and the sciences, it must also do everything in its power to push the untrustworthy news media toward the objectivity they have increasingly forgone over the past two decades.
The CBS settlement is, indeed, progress.
More, please.
Ethics Alarms 
increasingly forgone? Try abandoned completely. Everyone might not remember, but I’m sure you remember when The Huffington Post said they were going to move coverage of Trump’s campaign to the entertainment section because it was simply not to be taken seriously. That might be forgivable or at least understandable, since the Huffington Post is really Ariana Huffington’s vanity project and basically a huge liberal blog.
What isn’t forgivable or understandable is when the New York times said that it would devote all of its efforts in 2016 not to covering the campaign but to making sure Donald Trump was not elected president. I don’t think any other publication was as blunt about it, but most other publications followed suit. Trump collected almost no endorsements from any publications at all. I guess in the case of the times, which last endorsed a republican when Eisenhower was running, it’s believable, but in the case of all other publications?
iIts not like it started there. The major publications started going after George W. Bush as soon as he was re-elected and as soon as hurricane Katrina hit and they had something to hit him on. From there to the end of his term all you heard about was Abu Ghraib and how badly everything the president tried to do or did turned out.
For 8 years after that the press did nothing but kiss Obama’s ass, no matter how well or how badly things went. The press also tried to kiss Biden’s ass, even talking about his dogs having an “in-dog-uration,” like somehow the question of covid had just vanished the moment he took the oath of office. The only reason the press started to turn against Biden was not that he was demented and unable to execute the responsibilities of his office and now it was obvious, it was because he was going to lose. Then they started kissing up to Harris, like she was some great New Hope when in reality she knew nothing but how to wave her hands and cackle like a fool.
Now it’s back to all attack all the time. But they did not emerge unscathed. Some of the press got caught in lying and unethical behavior designed to boost Harris along. This is the point where they have to acknowledge what they did because it’s right there on the page and there’s no way around. So they have to pay up.
The last few Republican presidents would not have taken this step. They would have either ignored it, figuring it was beneath them, or they would have said they have work to do for the American people and they can’t get bogged down in this. Let’s face it, it’s not very statesmanlike to sue and go after the media. However, Donald Trump doesn’t care and is vengeful.
Normally, that would be a bad thing. Unfortunately, this inobjectivity and bias had gotten out of control. A nation can’t function at its best if its journalism sector is constantly trying to kneecap presidents of one party while running interference and covering for presidents of the other party.
Journalists in this country needed to be taught a lesson and hopefully reminded what their real job is. I hope this does the trick.
No example of such flagrant election manipulation in favor of a single candidate or party has ever occurred before. The partisan news media is a wound on democracy, and Trump is both right and righteous to make a major issue of CBS’s cheating. No, it wouldn’t have been professional or Presidential in earlier administrations, but the growing problem should have been addressed decades ago. We all let this go too far.
You mean “a wound on democracy,” right? And I don’t know if there hasn’t been such an attempt at manipulation in the past. The moving Iran-Contra back to the forefront in 1992 was an unfair late hit by the media on Bush the elder. Let’s also not forget the dredging up of an old DUI in 2000 in an unsuccessful attempt to sink Bush the younger or all the attacks on Trump that I can’t even count.
However, there is still the 2004 attempt to slime GWB over his service in the Texas ANG, also by CBS, based on what turned out to be fake memos that GWB got special treatment and his superiors were ordered to lie about his record, typed with a font that wasn’t in use at the time, using Army rather than Air Force jargon, without a provable chain of custody. It was the nastiest and dirtiest attempt at an October surprise so far, I think, and a flagrant attempt to swindle the American people by putting out something outrageous enough to shift votes without enough time to really think about it or look into it before the election.
However, Mary Mapes and Dan Rather got it out there too fast and too soon, with too little fact-checking and proofs. CBS threw Mary Mapes under the bus then and there, and I don’t think Rather’s retirement soon after was an accident or a coincidence. However, because he’d been the face of CBS for so long, I think he was allowed to bow out through the door rather than be kicked out the fifth-story window. To pretty much the end of his life, he maintained that he was the victim of a partisan hit job, when he was the one who did the hit job. In reality, he set the rule that journalism exists to help democrats, not report the truth.
The NY Post last year wrote that Dan Rather fought the truth, and the truth lost. I think that was where American journalism collapsed. 2 years later it’s arguably just more of the same.
Oh-oh…what did I write instead of ‘Wound”?
Ah HA! I left out the “a” in “a wound on democracy.” I was worried I had written “sound” or “hound of democracy” or something…
I like “Hound of Democracy” ….sounds like it could be a useful term. I’ll have to see if I can figure out when/where to employ it.
Here is the link to the NY Post article.
https://nypost.com/2024/04/30/opinion/how-the-dan-rather-scandal-wrecked-journalism-forever/
Journalist and journalsitic companies should pledge with every article or show what i had to pledge as witness in a trial,-
“To tell the truth, thee whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” Not doing so, I was admonished, could lead to me being convicted of purjury.
I undersstand the diffences in the forums, but as the Dragnet series opened, “”Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.” And as badge number 714 was purported to have said, “”Just the facts, ma’am.”
There is probable cause that CBS executives violated campaign finance laws.
On Reddit’s Star Trek Forum right now, there’s a thread by someone looking for other ways to watch the new “Strange New Worlds” without having to pay Paramount+ after it “caved” to Trump and settled. The moderator has already restricted comments to alternative channel options and no politics.
NPR and three Colorado member stations sued the Trump administration Tuesday over the president’s executive order seeking to halt federal funding for public media. (Updated 05/27/2025)
The lawsuit — filed in federal court in Washington by NPR, Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio and KSUT Public Radio — argues that President Donald Trump’s May 1 executive order “violates the expressed will of Congress and the First Amendment’s bedrock guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association.” The move sought to halt all funding from the private Corporation for Public Broadcasting — to which Congress appropriates over $500 million per year — to both news organizations.
In a statement on the lawsuit, free speech lawyer and counsel for NPR Theodore J. Boutrous called Trump’s executive order “blatantly unconstitutional,” adding that seeking to halt federal funding for NPR not only harms NPR, but also the “tens of millions of Americans across the country who rely on them for news and cultural programming, and vital emergency information.”
NPR sues Trump over funding cuts amid ongoing battle between administration and press – POLITICO
Ridiculous suit, and arguably an abuse of process, using a lawsuit for political grandstnding.
““CBS is the latest news giant to bend to Trump’s power,” says NPR. “What seemed possible — but hard to believe — before President Trump took office once more has now taken shape: A number of corporate and individual owners of media that promise to hold power to account have instead bowed to it,” the government-funded Democratic Party mouthpiece whines.”
I mean…. Write all the words out and say it plainly: As part of a multi-million dollar settlement for Stephanopoulos falsely calling Donald Trump a convicted rapist dozens of times on air, they have also agreed to also print the entirety of the transcripts of future Presidential Debates.
I don’t know when this started or if it’s just been more of a frog-boil, but it feels like journalists have been really hyper-focused on the “hold power to account” part of their mandate, and the “by informing their viewers/readers” part falling by the wayside. In fact, if they can hold a Republican to account by misinforming their viewers, they seem to have no qualms at all.
They’ve gotten too comfortable with lying to people. Actions have consequences, but for the longest time, Democrat activists have gotten away with actual crimes for so long that when someone pushes back, they lose their fucking minds.
This is why the response to Rittenhouse killing the people trying to kill him was so deranged, this is why the response to the judge being charged for actively hiding deportees from ice is so deranged, this is why the response to the ICE crackdowns generally is so deranged, and this is why the response to CBS’ settlement is so deranged: Their actions have been divorced from consequences for so long that the Fuck-Around-Find-Out Curve was negative. They’re so used to getting away with actual crimes and other assorted illegalities that when they’re being held to account, they act as if their rights are being stripped from them.
“We feel afraid to do all the unethical, illegal shit that we’ve gotten away with for years”
Good. Do it less.
In the future, because of the “Trump Rule” all interviews will have to have their transcripts edited to match the on-air broadcast.
A delinquent doesn’t suddenly become the Hall Monitor because you make a new rule.
–Dwayne