INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
"[Paramount] Board members are cognizant that a huge settlement could be viewed as something of a payoff to the president to move the
"the settlement and any discussions around that have nothing to do with the work that we're doing at the FCC."In a statement provided to Ars
today, Paramount said the "lawsuit is completely separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process
We will abide by the legal process to defend our case."As we've described previously, the allegations being examined by the FCC don't appear
to meet the agency's historical standard for determining that a news station intentionally distorted the news
The complaint to the FCC and Trump's lawsuit both focus on how CBS aired two different answers given by Harris to the same question about
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one on 60 Minutes and the other on Face the Nation
But CBS provided an unedited transcript and camera feeds of the interview that show that the two answers were just two different sentences
from the same response.While in court filings Paramount defended CBS's First Amendment rights over editorial content, 60 Minutes Executive
Producer Bill Owens resigned last week and alleged that he had lost editorial independence
Owens reportedly told staff in a memo that "over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have
always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience."This past weekend, journalist
Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes criticized Paramount in an unusual on-air segment
"Our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger," Pelley said
"The Trump administration must approve it
Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways
None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires
No one here is happy about it
But in resigning, Bill proved one thing: He was the right person to lead 60 Minutes all along."
