Former CBS Evening News anchor and 60 Minutes correspondent Dan Rather, 93, issued a blunt response to Paramount settling its Donald Trump lawsuit.
On July 1, Paramount revealed in a statement that it agreed to pay $16 million to Trump to settle a lawsuit accusing 60 Minutes of deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris. Trump’s team accused the CBS program of misleading U.S. voters amid the 2024 presidential election despite legal experts and the network labeling his argument was weak.
“It’s a sad day for journalism,” Rather told Variety of the situation. “It’s a sad day for 60 Minutes and CBS News. 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.”
Before the settlement, legal experts argued that the First Amendment would likely shield Paramount in this case. Rather insisted the network “didn’t have to” settle.
“You settle a lawsuit when you’ve done something wrong. ’60 Minutes’ did nothing wrong,” he declared. “It followed accepted journalistic practices. Lawyers almost unanimously said the case wouldn’t stand up in court.”
Despite the settlement, Rather expressed his unwavering support for CBS News.
“My support for them is total, absolute,” he said. “I do really think they fought a good fight on this, and they’ll continue to fight. The people on ’60 Minutes’ and at CBS News didn’t just take it lying down. They did their best to stop it.”
In May, longtime 60 Minutes reporter Lesley Stahl spoke out against her former employer’s handling of the lawsuit.
“To have a news organization come under corporate pressure — to have a news organization told by a corporation, ‘Do this, do that with your story, change this, change that, don’t run that piece.’ I mean, it steps on the First Amendment, it steps on the freedom of the press,” Stahl said on The New Yorker Radio Hour, per Fox News Digital.
Stahl continued, “It steps on what we stand for. It makes me question whether any corporation should own a news operation. It is very disconcerting.”
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