Dan Rather criticized CBS and its parent company, Paramount, for settling Donald Trump's lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview. Rather deemed it a sad day for journalism, claiming it represented distortion by the President and submission by corporate owners. The settlement required Paramount to pay Trump $16 million to resolve claims concerning the editing of the interview. Rather expressed concerns that this decision would embolden Trump to exert further pressure on news organizations, undermining the principles of free and independent reporting. He described the settlement as a sell-out to extortion.
It's a sad day for journalism. 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.
Paramount agreed to a settlement in which it will pay Trump $16 million to drop his claims against the company over the edited interview in which two different versions of the vice president's answer to the same question appeared in two different CBS broadcasts.
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.
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