A series of major personal and political victories for President Donald Trump includes a multimillion-dollar settlement with Paramount, which owns CBS News.

The network will be shelling out $16 million in response to a lawsuit related to an edited interview with then-presidential hopeful Kamala Harris.

CBS has also agreed to implement new policies aimed at presenting unabridged interviews with presidential contenders going forward.

For Dan Rather, a long-time CBS news anchor, the settlement amounts to a major corporation giving into a White House extortion attempt, as Fox News reported:

“What really gets me about this is that Paramount didn’t have to settle,” he told Variety. “You settle a lawsuit when you’ve done something wrong. ’60 Minutes’ did nothing wrong. It followed accepted journalistic practices. Lawyers almost unanimously said the case wouldn’t stand up in court.”

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The former anchor added that his support for CBS News and “60 Minutes” is “total, absolute,” and noted that he believes much of the staff did their best to fight back against the suit.

“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.”

He mentioned he wasn’t surprised that Paramount and CBS executives settled, though.

“Big billionaire business people make decisions about money. We could always hope that they will make an exception when it comes to freedom of the press, but it wasn’t to be,” he said, adding, “Trump knew if he put the pressure on and threatened and just held that they would fold, because there’s too much money on the table.”

Rather then characterized the settlement as a “sell-out to extortion by the president.”

His stance was quickly rebuffed by a slew of social media users who believe CBS deceptively edited Harris’ remarks and deserves to pay for it:

@DanRather It’s not bending to power. What @CBS did was wrong. Period. This isn’t about power from Trump. It is however, an excellent example of @CBSNews attempting to manipulate an interview thus manipulating viewers. Not sure why you consider it bending the knee to be…

— Mary Studebaker (@marymporte) July 3, 2025

Cause and effect. It was actually the cause part of the equation that was the sad day. He’s just upset they got exposed.

— Jay Stine (@Chiieeef) July 3, 2025

If he were honest, he would be congratulating them on avoiding discovery (Paramount/CBS have been partisan for years, personally disappointed we don’t get to see what discovery would’ve disclosed). https://t.co/sMzkDLOWGK

— Gettaway Gal (@gettawaygal) July 3, 2025

But Rather isn’t the only one with close CBS ties who has expressed dismay over the settlement.

According to the New York Post, the “60 Minutes” correspondent who conducted the Harris interview was in tears over the payout agreement:

Bill Whitaker, 73, appeared “teary-eyed” and “quite somber” during a tense Zoom meeting Wednesday morning as he addressed his “60 Minutes” colleagues in the wake of Paramount Global’s $16 million settlement with Trump, according to Oliver Darcy’s Status newsletter.

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The Post reported on Wednesday that CBS insiders were not buying the spin from Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks, who insisted that the settlement with the president spared the company from “reputational damage.”

The “dispirited staff” of the iconic television newsmagazine attended a “hastily arranged” 11 a.m. virtual conference to which they were summoned by CBS News president Tom Cibrowski and Tanya Simon, the acting executive producer of “60 Minutes,” Status reported.

According to the report, Simon told staffers that she learned of the settlement through press reports, though she added that she was relieved that neither “60 Minutes” nor CBS News were forced to offer an apology to Trump under the terms of the settlement.

After Whitaker spoke during the 11 a.m. Zoom conference, he was followed by fellow correspondents Lesley Stahl and Sharyn Alfonsi, who “voiced deep frustration and dismay” at the company’s decision to settle with Trump, according to Status.

Here’s some additional coverage of the settlement:

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.

View the original article here.