CBS News’ parent company, Paramount Global, and President Donald Trump are “engaged in good faith, advanced, settlement negotiations,” according to a Texas court filing on Monday.
Representatives from the two parties are having intense discussions aimed at bringing to a close the lawsuit brought by the president against CBS News’ Sunday newsmagazine show, 60 Minutes. In the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, the program featured an interview with former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris that Trump said was deceitfully edited, leading to the lawsuit.
According to CNN, Paramount Global is motivated to find a resolution to the legal dispute this week, with the media conglomerate scheduled to have its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday.
CNN reports that an upcoming July 7 termination deadline for the proposed merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media is also weighing heavily.
The media company is tackling the lawsuit from two fronts, as CBS News also filed a motion on June 23 in the Texas court seeking to have the case thrown out. In the filing, the news network continued to defend its flagship program, saying the First Amendment protects it and that the case should be dismissed.
CBS News was accused of “deceitful” editing by Trump and his campaign team after the Harris interview aired on 60 Minutes back in November 2024.
“To paper over Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news,” the suit stated.
In a strongly worded response, 60 Minutes described Trump’s charge as “false” and outlined how the editing decisions followed standard network practices.
“When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate, and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide-ranging 21-minute-long segment,” the statement noted.
However, the terms of the lawsuit changed after Trump won the election, adding Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) as a co-plaintiff. The president then stated that the interview violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the federal Lanham Act. Trump’s legal team argued that the edited version of the interview was used as a promotional tool for the program, which constitutes commercial speech, thereby putting CBS in direct competition with Trump’s media businesses for advertising revenue.
The president said that he was harmed because 60 Minutes captured traffic that otherwise would have been directed toward his own media properties.
CBS News’ legal team pushed back, writing, “The law is clear that news organizations may have a ‘profit motive,’ but such motive in no way divests their reporting of First Amendment protections.”
It further added, “Effectively conceding that their claims cannot survive if the Broadcasts are editorial speech subject to full First Amendment protections, Plaintiffs argue that the Broadcasts somehow became ‘commercial speech’ via a simple promotion for the Interview.”
CBS News is also seeking to move the case back to New York, arguing that the broadcast, which originated from New York City, and the interview, which took place in Washington, D.C., “does not belong in federal court in Texas.”
All this is happening as Shari Redstone-chair of Paramount Global-is reportedly seeking to settle the suit ahead of Paramount’s planned merger with Skydance Media.
This attempt at settlement has caused fallout at CBS News, as two key executives closely associated with 60 Minutes have left the news network, including Wendy McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures, and Bill Owens, the longtime executive producer of 60 Minutes.
Oliver Darcy, in his Status newsletter on Monday, June 30, reported that all correspondents from the newsmagazine show signed a letter to Paramount Global executives, warning of reputational damage to the program should a settlement be reached between the two parties.
TVNewser reached out to CBS News for comment on the advance settlement negotiations and the letter signed by 60 Minutes correspondents for Paramount Global leadership, but did not receive a response as of the time of publication.