Dan Rather about Paramount’s Trump Suit scheme: ‘It was a sale’
Legendary Former CBS news anchor, then on Wednesday, disappointed with the decision of Paramount Global to pay $ 16 million to the Trump administration and its lawsuit on a report of “60 minutes”.
“It’s a sad day for journalism,” said earlier Variety. “It is a sad day for ’60 minutes’ and CBS News. I hope that people will read the details of this and understand what it was. It was distortion by the president and kneels and say,” Yes, Mr, by billionaire owners. ”
Most legal scientists agreed that the case-in which Trump accused “60 minutes” of cheating an interview with the then presidential candidate Kamala Harris-Frivole was and would not stand under the first amendment.
“What really touches me is that Paramount didn’t have to settle down,” said earlier. “You arrange a lawsuit if you’ve done something wrong.” 60 minutes “did nothing wrong. It followed accepted journalistic practices. Lawyers almost unanimously said that the case would not get up in court.”
Against a full support from his former colleagues on CBS News and “60 minutes” pronounced: “My support for them is total, absolutely,” he said. “I really think they have fought a good fight against this, and they will continue to fight. The people on ’60 minutes’ and at CBS News did not just take it lying. They did their best to stop it.”
Nevertheless, he said that he was not shocked by the arrangement of Paramount Global. The decision to close a deal was generally seen as a crucial step to get approval from the Trump-controlled FCC for Skydance’s $ 8 billion takeover of the Mediaconglom.
“I was disappointed, but I wasn’t surprised,” he said. “Big billionaire business people make decisions about money. We can always hope that they will make an exception when it comes to freedom of press, but that was not the case.
“Trump knew that if he exerted the pressure and threatened and just held that they would fold because there is too much money on the table,” he added. “Trump is now forcing a whole news organization to pay millions of dollars for doing something that is protected by the Constitution-what natural and independent reporting is. Now you are taking the sale of today. And that was it: it was a sale of extortion by the president. Who can say where all this ends?”
Instead of pointing out the greater issue of what this means for the United States as a democracy. “It has to do with not only journalism, but more importantly, with the country as a whole,” he said. “What kind of country we will have, what kind of country we are going to be. If large news organizations continue to kneel for power and stop trying to keep the powerful responsible, then we all lose.
“And then large law firms have established themselves on the right and left, kneeling in the same way,” he said. ‘Large universities that do the same. Trump can be taken out what he wants from them. Now he pays what he wants from news organizations. So when I say: ‘Where is this going? ‘What are the effects on journalism as a whole? “
Asked what advice he could give people on CBS News and “60 minutes,” said it is more humble that it is not his place – but that they “already know in their hearts, in their being, the best things to do. I will say they expect that they now completely double on the great report they can do.”
In his more than 60 years as a journalist, he said earlier that he has never seen the profession, the kind of challenges that it is now against. “Journalism has previously had his trials and trials, and it takes courage to only be a soldier,” he said. “Keep trying, keep fighting. It requires guts to do that. And I know the people from CBS News, and in particular those at ’60 minutes,” they will do their dead level best under these circumstances. But the question is what this development and the message it sends us. And that is what I try to concentrate on. “
