The Writers Guild of America East shamed Paramount Global early Wednesday morning for not having the courage to defend its journalists after the media company reached a $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over his “60 Minutes” lawsuit.
“The Writers Guild of America East stands behind the exemplary work of our members at ’60 Minutes’ and CBS News. We wish their bosses at Paramount Global had the courage to do the same,” the WGAE shared in a statement. “This settlement is a transparent attempt to curry favors with an administration in the hopes it will allow Paramount Global and Skydance Media merger to be cleared for approval.”
“Paramount’s decision to capitulate to Trump threatens journalists’ ability to do their job reporting on powerful public figures,” they concluded.
The settlement agreement reached late Tuesday night would include “plaintiffs’ fees and costs” as well as a donation that will be allocated to a “future presidential library.” Paramount also noted that “in the future, ’60 Minutes’ will release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after such interviews have aired, subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.”
Trump will not receive any money directly or indirectly and he will release all of his claims, including those of defamation.
With that said, neither CBS nor “60 Minutes” will have to issue any public statement of apology or regret over their Vice President Kamala Harris interview edits. Trump originally sued the network for $20 billion, claiming the October 2024 interview caused him “mental anguish” after being deceptively edited to make his opponent look good.
He also alleged that the changes between the initial commercial and the actual episode airing amounted to “false advertising and tampering” that withheld viewers’ attention from him and his social media platform Truth Social, resulting in a decrease in value for Trump Media and Technology Group and his other media holdings, while also violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
CBS’s lawyers had previously defended their journalism in question, calling the suit “meritless.”
