Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by US President Donald Trump during his election campaign last year.
Trump’s team complained that his electoral chances had been hurt when Paramount’s subsidiary CBS aired two cuts of a comment by then-Vice President Kamala Harris, alleging that the broadcaster edited a more rambling version to make her look better.
CBS called the lawsuit “meritless” and was keen to fight, but Paramount — facing a fraught merger with Skydance Media — is in a precarious position, and settling could ease the process of gaining government approval for the deal. The decision to settle is likely to cause a backlash from CBS journalists, free-speech activists, and the Democratic Party, The Washington Post reported.