Former CBS Night Information anchor and 60 Minutes correspondent Dan Slightly, 93, issued a blunt response to Paramount settling its Donald Trump lawsuit.
On July 1, Paramount revealed in an announcement that it agreed to pay $16 million to Trump to settle a lawsuit accusing 60 Minutes of deceptively enhancing an interview with Kamala Harris. Trump’s workforce accused the CBS program of deceptive U.S. voters amid the 2024 presidential election regardless of authorized specialists and the community labeling his argument was weak.
“It’s a tragic day for journalism,” Slightly instructed Selection of the scenario. “It’s a tragic day for 60 Minutes and CBS Information. I hope individuals will learn the small print of this and perceive what it was. It was distortion by the President and a kneeling down and saying, ‘Sure, sir,’ by billionaire company homeowners.”
Earlier than the settlement, authorized specialists argued that the First Modification would doubtless defend Paramount on this case. Slightly insisted the community “didn’t should” settle.
“You compromise a lawsuit once you’ve performed one thing fallacious. ’60 Minutes’ did nothing fallacious,” he declared. “It adopted accepted journalistic practices. Attorneys virtually unanimously stated the case wouldn’t rise up in courtroom.”
Regardless of the settlement, Slightly expressed his unwavering assist for CBS Information.
“My assist for them is complete, absolute,” he stated. “I do actually suppose they fought a great struggle on this, they usually’ll proceed to struggle. The individuals on ’60 Minutes’ and at CBS Information didn’t simply take it mendacity down. They did their greatest to cease it.”
In Could, longtime 60 Minutes reporter Lesley Stahl spoke out in opposition to her former employer’s dealing with of the lawsuit.
“To have a information group come underneath company stress — to have a information group instructed by an organization, ‘Do that, try this together with your story, change this, change that, don’t run that piece.’ I imply, it steps on the First Modification, it steps on the liberty of the press,” Stahl stated on The New Yorker Radio Hour, per Fox Information Digital.
Stahl continued, “It steps on what we stand for. It makes me query whether or not any company ought to personal a information operation. It is rather disconcerting.”
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