I can understand why people would have that reaction because CBS or the parent corporation - I'm not going to say who made that decision, because I don't know; no one's ever going to tell us - decided to cut a check for $16 million to the president of the United States over a lawsuit that their own lawyers, Paramount's own lawyers, said is completely without merit.
The deal, valued at roughly $150 million in cash and stock, brings Weiss's growing subscriber-driven platform under the same corporate roof as CBS, Showtime, and Paramount, according to CBS News. It also places Weiss, who rose to prominence as a conservative-leaning critic of liberal media culture, at the helm of one of the nation's oldest and most trusted news brands.