Threatened with a defamation lawsuit and desperate to win the president's approval for an $8bn corporate merger, Paramount has agreed to pay Donald Trump $16m.
The deal was delayed, according to earlier reports, as Paramount's own lawyers understand the payment to be a bribe and are concerned about the legal liabilities. The payment will be structured as a donation to a proposed Trump "presidential library," according to the announcement.
Trump threatened Paramount over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris broadcast on CBS last year. The lawsuit claimed that editing the interview (as almost all interviews are for one reason or another) somehow defamed Trump. Though experts universally agreed the lawsuit was frivolous and doomed to failure in the courtroom, CBS parent Paramount is eager to proceed with the Skydance sale, which requires regulatory consent which Trump can halt.
As part of the deal, Paramount admits no wrongdoing, makes no apology, and will publicize the interview transcripts, which it had already released. The $16m paid to Trump matches the $16m paid by ABC News to avert a similar Trump lawsuit earlier this year.
The real cost, though, is in flushing the credibility of 60 Minutes, if not CBS News entirely, to fix a business problem. As reporter David Weigel put it, it'll be unlikely political opponents of Trump can "justify going on the Shakedown Channel."
Previously:
• Paramount axes Comedy Central website, with decades of video clips, in latest cut
• Paramount tells judge that they're still suing over Star Trek fan-film
