The departure of two top executives at CBS News in recent weeks has shaken journalists at the outlet and fueled speculation the network’s corporate parent will soon settle a high-profile lawsuit brought against the company by President Trump.
The resignation this week of CBS President Wendy McMahon came just weeks after that of “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens.
The back-to-back resignations served as the latest sign that a brooding crisis for one of the country’s largest and oldest broadcast news networks is reaching an inflection point.
Though they did not mention Trump’s lawsuit explicitly as they announced plans to leave, McMahon and Owens made clear they were convinced they could no longer independently lead CBS, which has come under increased legal and regulatory threat from Trump’s administration.
“In some ways, it feels like Trump has already won this fight,” one Republican political operative told The Hill this week. “He wants to be covered positively by all of these networks, and this is a pretty clear sign his plan to intimidate is working.”
Trump sued CBS News and “60 Minutes” last fall over an interview the program aired with former Vice President Kamala Harris just days before she faced off with Trump in the November election.
As part of his $10 billion suit, the president’s attorneys argued producers for the program intentionally edited portions of the interview with Harris to cast her in a more positive, coherent light.
CBS released a full transcript of the interview weeks later after a pressure campaign from Trump and his allies defending their editing and calling the suit “without merit.”
Paramount has indicated in public statements and legal filings it is prepared to defend itself from the president’s claims in court despite widespread rumors of a settlement.
Complicating matters for the massive media conglomerate, however, is pending business the company has before the Trump administration.
Paramount, which has taken massive Wall Street losses on linear broadcast assets in recent quarters, is working to secure a mega-merger with fellow entertainment giant Skydance.
The Paramount/Skydance deal is a transaction worth nearly $30 billion that will need approval from federal regulators who report to Trump.
After Owens left, “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley took the extraordinary step of alluding to the proposed merger on air and told the program’s viewers the following Sunday that Paramount had begun to “supervise” their coverage of the administration “in new ways.”
Shari Redstone, the longtime chair of Paramount and an executive who stands to make tens of millions of dollars personally on the Skydance deal, has been unhappy for weeks with CBS’s coverage of the administration and other issues, The New York Times reported earlier this month.
Inside CBS News, there has been a growing sense of dread and frustration that a settlement with Trump could be coming, at what many observers see as the expense of “60 Minutes,” the network’s premier news program.
Several staffers at the network declined to speak with The Hill on the record about the situation, though several reports have emerged in recent days laying out frustration at the network over the saga.
The resignation of McMahon and Owens are seen as important, too, in sending a signal.
“People in high positions in media have a unique ability to take a moral stand more than your average everyday journalist,” said Ben Bogardus, an associate professor of journalism at Quinnipiac University. “Other CBS journalists could follow them, if they feel the pressure to cover news a certain way isn’t pulled back by CBS executives.”
A spokesperson for Paramount told The Hill on Wednesday the Trump lawsuit “is completely separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process.”
“We will abide by the legal process to defend our case,” the spokesperson said.
The two sides began mediation talks this month, with at least one report suggesting a potential settlement could reach upwards of $50 million and include a formal apology.
Meanwhile, Paramount’s apparent nudging toward an out-of-court agreement with the president is gaining attention on Capitol Hill.
A trio of senators wrote a letter to Redstone this week expressing “serious concern” about the possibility her media company “may be engaging in improper conduct involving the Trump administration.”
“Under the federal bribery statute, it is illegal to corruptly give anything of value to public officials to influence an official act,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote. “If Paramount officials make these concessions in a quid pro quo arrangement to influence President Trump or other Administration officials, they may be breaking the law.”
Others argue even such an explicit agreement to drop the suit in exchange for regulatory relief poses business risks for Redstone and her shareholders.
“What about Trump suggests he negotiates in good faith,” said Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to former President Obama and Democratic aide.
CBS is one of several major news networks Trump has threatened with lawsuits and urged his FCC to investigate over coverage that he feels is not favorable enough of him.
Brendan Carr, Trump’s FCC chair, has signaled he views the Harris “60 Minutes” interview as grounds for a legitimate “news distortion” complaint.
“Something that Trump understands is the media outlets he hates have larger corporate structures that he can appeal to which are not terribly interested in journalism,” said Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, the left-leaning press watchdog and think tank. “In this case, he’s wielding the power of the federal government to get that corporate ownership structure to work to his benefit.”
CBS is not the first network to find itself in Trump’s legal crosshairs since he won reelection.
In December, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million and issued an apology for a broadcast during which anchor George Stephanopoulos falsely claimed Trump had been convicted of rape.
CBS has been through its fair share of controversies in recent years, from the firings of top executives and journalists like Les Moonves and Charlie Rose over sexual misconduct allegations, to the resignation of anchors like Lara Logan and Sharyl Attkisson who accused the network of liberal bias.
“I think Trump’s team really senses it’s been rough at CBS, and all of these networks, for a while now,” the Republican operative added. “If this goes where it looks like it’s headed, it could really be one of the final nails in the coffin.”
