Just a few weeks earlier than the announcement within the wee hours of July 1 that Paramount International and CBS have been settling a extensively derided lawsuit introduced by Donald Trump in opposition to “60 Minutes” for $16 million, George Clooney took his last bow on Broadway as Edward R. Murrow, the famed CBS journalist he portrayed in “Good Evening, and Good Luck.” The sold-out play chronicles the battle between Murrow and the red-baiting Senator Joseph McCarthy and underscores the esteemed place that CBS Information has lengthy held in broadcast journalism. From Walter Cronkite’s reporting on the Vietnam Conflict to publishing the primary images of the abuses by American troopers at Abu Ghraib, CBS Information has a proud historical past of public service on the subject of checking authorities wrongdoing. 

The crown jewel within the CBS Information lineup is “60 Minutes,” the discussion board for Mike Wallace’s interview with tobacco business whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand and interviews with key figures within the Watergate scandal. And since Richard Nixon ran in opposition to Hubert Humphrey in 1968, “60 Minutes” has made a observe of interviewing each main get together candidates within the lead-up to every presidential election. 

Given this storied historical past, it was significantly dispiriting to learn the information that CBS Information’ mum or dad firm, Paramount, had agreed to settle Trump’s lawsuit in opposition to “60 Minutes” alleging that the present’s airing of an interview in October 2024 with Vice President Kamala Harris constituted client deception. Trump, who had declined to comply with the instance of his predecessors and sit for his personal “60 Minutes” interview, asserted that CBS had wronged him with its enhancing of the Harris interview. An unspecified quantity of Paramount’s $16 million fee will go to cowl Trump’s authorized charges, with the steadiness supposedly going to fund President Trump’s future presidential library. 

The main points of President Trump’s case are hardly price parsing aside from to notice {that a} choice to settle the case for any amount of cash — not to mention $16 million — should be for causes outdoors the 4 corners of the legislation. On this case, the reason is easy. Paramount has an $8.4 billion merger pending earlier than the FCC, and Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr put that approval in jeopardy when he reopened a doubtful “information distortion” investigation into the Harris interview. Though that investigation remains to be pending, it appears clear sufficient that Paramount has determined that billions outrank thousands and thousands and the price of throwing many years of credibility out the window can’t make up the distinction.  

Trump’s Corleone-style strategy towards media relations will not be restricted to CBS, neither is Paramount’s capitulation distinctive. Final December, ABC Information paid $16 million to Trump and his attorneys to settle a defamation declare based mostly on statements made by ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos in regards to the civil judgment that Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll. As with Paramount, ABC, which is owned by Disney, selected to settle that case as an alternative of availing itself of a variety of First Modification defenses. Equally, each Meta and Elon Musk’s X paid thousands and thousands of {dollars} to Trump’s presidential library to settle legally questionable lawsuits Trump filed in opposition to Fb and then-Twitter for suspending his accounts following his actions on Jan. 6, 2021.

These shameful episodes illustrate two troubling tendencies of the second Trump administration on the subject of free speech and an unbiased press.

First, Trump has wielded the large energy of the federal paperwork, together with the facility of the purse and regulatory oversight of companies, to silence critics and management the viewpoints of personal audio system. These actions fly within the face of the basic First Modification precept that the federal government shouldn’t be permitted to make use of its energy to censor viewpoints or distort public discourse.

Second, far too usually these audio system have folded within the face of the Trump administration’s threats quite than use the sturdy protections of the First Modification to vindicate their proper to free speech. The First Modification, as highly effective as it’s, can solely be a protect to those that are keen to make use of it as one. 

It’s arduous to muster a lot sympathy for firms which have chosen to capitulate needlessly. However the actual loser right here is the flexibility of the press and different audio system to criticize highly effective figures and expose wrongdoing by authorities and company entities. To be honest, CBS Information itself didn’t fold and not using a struggle: In the course of the months that Paramount executives have been negotiating over a settlement, quite a few CBS journalists and producers spoke up in opposition to settling, and longtime “60 Minutes” government producer Invoice Owens and CBS Information president Wendy McMahon departed amid Paramount’s willingness to settle. However Paramount’s capitulation units a precedent which harms the integrity of our political processes and threatens the fundamental functioning of our democracy.  

The message despatched by Paramount and different media corporations which have settled with Trump is that journalists and information organizations ought to suppose twice earlier than publishing studies which may anger the president. There may be already proof that executives at Paramount might have pressured “60 Minutes” to not run sure controversial tales. Likewise, final fall the house owners of the Los Angeles Occasions and the Washington Publish stopped their papers’ workers from working presidential endorsements of Harris; the implication was that the house owners didn’t need to provoke Trump’s ire.

However these choices set a precedent that harms the integrity of our political processes and threatens the fundamental functioning of our democracy. The one option to keep away from such an unthinkable end result is for different media corporations to be keen to face as much as this type of illegal bullying.

Katie Fallow is deputy litigation director on the Knight First Modification Institute, the place she focuses on threats to free speech and a free press within the digital age, significantly within the space of social media. Earlier than becoming a member of the Knight Institute, Fallow was deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Shopper Safety and was a litigation accomplice at Jenner & Block in Washington, D.C., the place she represented online game makers in a protracted line of challenges to authorities restrictions on video video games, culminating within the Supreme Courtroom’s 2011 landmark choice in Brown v. Leisure Retailers Affiliation, holding that violent video video games are protected speech.