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A group of senators led by Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are urging Paramount not to settle President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against its news division, CBS.
In a letter to Paramount owner Shari Redstone shared with Semafor, Sanders and eight Democratic senators said the media company should fight Trump’s lawsuit against CBS, which focuses on a minor edit of a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential campaign season.
“Rewarding Trump with tens of millions of dollars for filing this bogus lawsuit will not cause him to back down on his war against the media and a free press,” the letter said. “It will only embolden him to shakedown, extort and silence CBS and other media outlets that have the courage to report about issues that Trump may not like.”
It continued: “We urge you and the board of directors at Paramount to make it clear to President Trump today that Paramount will not surrender to his attack on the First Amendment.”
The letter was co-signed by senators including Chris Murphy, Richard Durbin, Elizabeth Warren, and Sheldon Whitehouse, among others.
While most legal experts agree that Trump’s lawsuit against 60 Minutes is dubious at best, Paramount has entered into settlement talks with the president. The company has attempted to avoid provoking Trump’s anger as it attempts to finalize its merger with the entertainment company Skydance, which will require the approval of the Federal Communications Commission.
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The merger has prompted the network to take precautions that haven’t always sat well with its staff. The company decided earlier this month to cut ties with a bipartisan group of political organizations that had partnered with The Daily Show to sign up prospective candidates for local office.
And as Semafor first reported, Redstone has been personally concerned about the editorial content of 60 Minutes for months. Her decision to ask the program’s leadership to tell her about future segments involving Trump was one of the factors that led to the exit of 60 Minutes’ longtime executive producer, prompting an outcry among staff.
While their status in the minority has limited their ability to formally challenge or scrutinize the Trump administration, congressional Democrats have sent a series of public messages signaling their displeasure with the administration’s actions towards the news media. As Semafor first reported, earlier this year, Democratic Sens. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, and Ed Markey of Massachusetts introduced a bill that would curtail the FCC’s ability to strip broadcast licenses from television stations that express oppositional political viewpoints to the president.