Another Disgraceful Capitulation to the Extortionist in Chief

Paramount’s settlement of trump’s baseless lawsuit may have been worse than first reported

Because I made my living as a journalist, it’s hard for me to get over the news of Paramount’s spineless settlement of trump’s comically frivolous lawsuit against CBS, which Paramount owns.

And now it turns out that the settlement, which supposedly entailed a $16 million payment to trump’s future presidential library—if one can even imagine such an entity (shelves full of coloring books?)—may have been more abject than initial reports made it out to be.

Fox Business correspondent Charles Gasparino reported that Skydance owner David Ellison—the son of billionaire Larry Ellison, a trump supporter—added a secret sweetener to the agreement: once Paramount completes its $8 billion merger with Skydance, the new company will air millions of dollars’ worth of public service ads on behalf of trump.

Whether or not that’s true, let’s call the settlement what it is—a bribe intended to smooth the way for the merger, which needs the approval of trump’s Federal Communications Commission. To her credit, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling for an investigation of the settlement bribe, although the chances of that happening while the neutered Justice Department is run by trump toady Pam Bondi are nil.

As a reminder, trump sued CBS for $20 billion (not a typo) over a “60 Minutes” interview of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris shortly before the 2024 election. trump laughably accused CBS of airing two different snippets of an answer Harris gave in order to boost her election prospects. One snippet ran on CBS’ Sunday morning show “Face the Nation,” and the other, which had been edited, ran on “60 Minutes.” Such edits are routine in the business.

I looked up Paramount’s SEC filings to see what, if anything, it had filed regarding the settlement. Bupkes. No 8-K filing, which is supposed to disclose significant events. I guess Paramount’s lawyers advised the company that the settlement was no biggie requiring disclosure to investors.

I also looked up Paramount’s most recent 10-K filing to find out the names of the acquiescent directors who approved this appalling settlement bribe. But before I name them (in case you want to send them a Hallmark card), I thought I’d call attention to some of the language in that 10-K filing that this settlement bribe betrays.

Under the heading “Legal Matters,” it declared as follows:

On an ongoing basis, we vigorously defend ourselves in numerous lawsuits and proceedings and respond to various investigations and inquiries from federal, state, local and international authorities. … Litigation may be brought against us without merit, isn’t inherently uncertain and always difficult to predict.

Not a very vigorous defense, after all. And lawsuit outcomes are not always difficult to predict. Every legal expert who hasn’t sold his or her soul to trump has opined that trump’s lawsuit against Paramount had not a scintilla of merit, as the most cursory examination of its claims would reveal to even the most legally clueless layperson.

That said, the trump legal team went judge shopping and strategically filed this dog of a case in the Amarillo Division of the federal court in the Northern District of Texas, which meant that it was assigned to trump appointee Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. Kacsmaryk is a notorious hack, having been named to the bench because of his fanatical opposition to abortion. (He’s the judge who suspended the approval of mifepristone, an abortion-inducing drug that had been on the market for more than 20 years.) Kacsmaryk can be relied upon to always rule against policies supported by Democrats and in favor of policies supported by Republicans.

But even had Kacsmaryk besmirched whatever little is left of his reputation by refusing to dismiss trump’s lawsuit, it’s hard to believe a jury would have ruled in trump’s favor, even in Amarillo. And had it done so, it’s hard to believe it would have survived an appeal, even before the notoriously retrograde 5th Circuit.

In any event, Paramount had the resources to battle this out and take a stand on behalf of freedom of the press, which has been under unremitting assault by trump and his wretched courtiers. Instead, it became the latest news organization owner to disgrace itself by bending the knee to him.

(Disney preceded it when it settled—oddly, for the same amount—a defamation suit trump filed against ABC News, a Disney subsidiary, after George Stephanopoulos said trump had been found liable for rape in E. Jean Carroll’s civil lawsuit against him. The jury actually found trump liable for sexual assault, not rape, although the judge, Lewis Kaplan, noted that “the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact committed digital penetration, which “many people commonly understand [by] the word ‘rape.’”)

As Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple put it:

Honest journalism requires noting that Paramount’s leaders will never, ever hear the end of this abject decision. Nor should they. Much has been made in the recent past about attacks on the First Amendment, whether it’s the administration’s expulsion of the Associated Press from the White House press pool because it won’t swallow “Gulf of America” (a dispute that’s tied up in the courts), the targeting of student protesters for their speech, attacks on lawyers for their past work, or any number of actions seeking to snuff diversity language from the handbooks of corporate America.

Yet the First Amendment withers, too, when it’s not called into action under trying circumstances. That’s the sin of Paramount. Though lawyers for CBS News cited First Amendment protections in court filings, Paramount caved prematurely and completely, leaving the impression that our legal protections may not have been equal to the task. Is it possible to malign the First Amendment itself?

And now for the Paramount Hall of Shame. Listed below are the members of its board of directors and excerpts from their bios, as listed in Paramount’s SEC filings. Special contempt is reserved for Shari Redstone, Paramount’s chair, who holds a controlling stake in the company through her family’s holding company, National Amusements, and who pushed hard for the settlement. (Redstone inherited her controlling stake from her late father, Sumner Redstone.) If the Skydance merger goes through, she stands to make $1.75 billion.

Note: Redstone recused herself from the final decision because of her financial stake in the merger deal. And except for Judith McHale, all of the directors listed below stood for reelection at Paramount’s annual shareholders meeting on July 2. The settlement was finalized before the meeting, so three new directors on the election slate presumably were not involved in the settlement’s approval and are not listed.

BARBARA M. BYRNE

Ms. Byrne is the former Vice Chairman, Investment Banking at Barclays PLC. Ms. Byrne has served as a director of LanzaTech NZ, Inc. since 2023 and of Carta, Inc. and PowerSchool Holdings, Inc. since 2021. Ms. Byrne previously served as a director of Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. V and Slam Corp. Ms. Byrne also serves as a Lifetime Member of the Council of Foreign Relations, a Trustee of the Institute of International Education, a member of the Investment Committee of Catalyst and a member of the Audit Committee Leadership Network.

LINDA M. GRIEGO

Ms. Griego has served, for almost four decades, as President and Chief Executive Officer of Griego Enterprises, Inc., a business management company. For more than 20 years, she oversaw the operations of Engine Co. No. 28, a prominent restaurant in downtown Los Angeles that she founded in 1988. From 1990 to 2000, Ms. Griego held a number of government-related appointments, including Deputy Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Los Angeles Community Development Bank, and President and Chief Executive Officer of Rebuild LA, the agency created to jump-start inner-city economic development following the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Bank and Granite Construction. She also served as a Los Angeles director of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.

JUDITH A. MCHALE

Ms. McHale is President and Chief Executive Officer of Cane Investments, LLC, a private investment company, and served as a member of the board of Viacom Inc. (“Viacom”) from August 2016 to December 2019. Prior to joining Cane Investments in 2011, Ms. McHale served as the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of State from 2009 to 2011.

SHARI E. REDSTONE

Ms. Redstone has been a member of our Board since January 1994 and served on the Viacom board from January 2006 to December 2019. She has served as Non-Executive Chair of our Board since December 2019 and prior to that served as Non-Executive Vice Chair of the Board beginning in June 2005 and Non-Executive Vice Chair of the Viacom board beginning in January 2006.

Ms. Redstone is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Advancit Capital, an investment firm launched in 2011 that focuses on early stage companies at the intersection of media, entertainment and technology, with investments in over 75 companies. Ms. Redstone has been President of National Amusements, Inc. (“National Amusements”) since 2000 and Chief Executive Officer since 2020. She also serves on the National Amusements board as its Chairperson. Ms. Redstone serves on the Board of Trustees for the Paley Center for Media and is actively involved in charitable, civic and educational organizations. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She earned a BS from Tufts University, and a JD and a Masters in Tax Law from Boston University. She practiced corporate law, estate planning and criminal law in the Boston area before joining National Amusements.

Ms. Redstone brings to our Board her extensive experience in and understanding of the entertainment industry, broad experience and talent managing a large business, extensive legal experience and her experience as President of National Amusements, including as one of its significant stockholders.

SUSAN SCHUMAN

Ms. Schuman is Vice Chair of kyu Collective, CEO of kyu Consulting Group and Chair and Co-Founder of SYPartners LLC, a consultancy firm that partners with chief executive officers and their leadership teams undergoing business and cultural transformation. Ms. Schuman serves on the boards of Management Leadership for Tomorrow and NewLab. She is also on the advisory boards of IDEO, Godfrey Datich Partners, Lexington, Public Digital and Atolye, and previously served on the board of Wheels Up Partners LLC.

An impressive group, at least on paper. But I suspect they’ll mostly be remembered for their roles in failing to stand up to the Orange Bully and helping to undermine the free press.