’60 Minutes’ Lawsuit Settlement With Trump Would Cripple Paramount With a ‘Flag of Surrender,’ Jake Tapper Says | Video
The CNN host says the president’s latest lawsuits against news media organizations “represents a dangerous escalation” The post ’60 Minutes’ Lawsuit Settlement With Trump Would Cripple Paramount With a ‘Flag of Surrender,’ Jake Tapper Says | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
If Paramount decides to settle with Donald Trump over his claim that “60 Minutes” doctored an interview with Kamala Harris, it would represent a “flag of surrender,” Jake Tapper said on Thursday.
The CNN host said the president’s latest lawsuits against news media organizations “represents a dangerous escalation.” Last year, ABC settled with Trump over criticism from anchor George Stephanopoulos rather than take the seemingly winnable case to court. Meta also settled with Trump after kicking him off various social media platforms because of his involvement with the Jan. 6. attack on Capitol Hill.
And now, a CBS source told Tapper that “everyone expects” that Paramount Global chairwoman Shari Redstone will settle with Trump to ensure that his administration won’t block the company’s upcoming merger with Skydance.
“Any American who values a free and independent press should care about [this], including Trump supporters who should not like the precedent that is being set,” Tapper began.
“[Redstone] is not concerned about her legacy, democracy or the work we do,” the CBS insider told him. “It’s only about the deal, her pocketbook … Surely they realize a settlement diminishes the brand and value of ’60 minutes,’ which they claim to admire and want to own.”
“For Paramount to settle this suit would be hoisting a white flag of surrender,” Tapped added.
The CNN host then invoked legendary CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow, who famously called out the intimidation tactics of Sen. Joseph McCarthy on-air in a 1954 broadcast that inspired the film, “Good Night, and Good Luck”
“It would be the network of Edward R. Murrow at the behest of its owners, saying, ‘We will not speak truth to power. We will acquiesce to power at the expense of truth,'” Tapper continued.
He went on to point out that Trump has sued or gone after dozens of journalists and news organizations who have criticized him, including Bill Maher and the local Des Moines Register. Tapper made clear that Trump’s efforts to battle the media comes less as a desire or expectation to win but more to “make people think twice before they will say anything critical about it.”
He added the CBS News employee told him if Paramount settles the Trump suit, “Let’s call it what it is. It’s a bribe.”
The post ’60 Minutes’ Lawsuit Settlement With Trump Would Cripple Paramount With a ‘Flag of Surrender,’ Jake Tapper Says | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
