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Paramount Global, now CBS's parent company, reached a $16 million settlement in President Donald Trump's lawsuit over the editing of an interview with his opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, on 60 Minutes before the 2024 Presidential election
Dan Rather, a regular on the popular weekly newsmagazine show and longtime CBS anchor, lashed out at the move.
“It’s a sad day for journalism,” Rather said in an interview with Variety. “It’s a sad day for 60 Minutes and CBS News. I hope people will read the details of this and understand what it was. It was distortion by the President and a kneeling down and saying, ‘yes, sir,’ by billionaire corporate owners.”
Trump had filed a lawsuit last fall claiming CBS deceptively edited the Harris interview.
The fallout during negotiations afterward led to the resignation of CBS News President Wendy McMahon as the news division staunchly denied Trump's accusation.
Paramount Global's pending potential merger with Skydance Media requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
“Trump knew if he put the pressure on and threatened and just held that they would fold, because there’s too much money on the table,” Rather told Variety. “Trump is now forcing a whole news organization to pay millions of dollars for doing something protected by the Constitution — which is, of course, free and independent reporting.
"Now, you take today’s sell-out. And that’s what it was: It was a sell-out to extortion by the President. Who can now say where all this ends?”
Current CBS Evening News co-anchor John Dickerson also questioned the settlement on the Wednesday, July 2, broadcast, stating in a commentary: “Can you hold power to account after paying it millions? Can an audience trust you when it thinks you’ve traded away that trust? The audience will decide that.”
Rather, age 92, anchored the CBS Evening News for 24 years, the longest stretch in American television history.
He first rose to national prominence during Hurricane Carla in 1961, when his reporting helped save thousands of lives. From there, he became a household name, covering the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, Watergate, 9/11, and the Iraq invasion.
Rather joined CBS in 1962 and climbed the ranks as a White House correspondent and foreign bureau chief. In 1981, he took over the evening anchor chair from Walter Cronkite, becoming one of the “Big Three” alongside NBC’s Tom Brokaw and ABC’s Peter Jennings.
Rather also was a regular on 60 Minutes.
Earlier report - Paramount Reportedly Settles Trump's '60 Minutes' Lawsuit Amid Free Speech Concerns
His storied tenure ended in controversy. After airing a 2004 report on President George W. Bush’s National Guard service that relied on disputed documents, Rather stepped down from the anchor chair in 2005.
CBS parted ways with him entirely the following year. Rather later filed a $70 million lawsuit over his ouster, which was ultimately dismissed.
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