Former 60 Minutes Correspondent Denounces Paramount’s Settlement With Trump: ‘The Nadir’ for CBS

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An ex-60 Minutes correspondent is denouncing Paramount’s settlement with Donald Trump over the newsmagazine’s interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Paramount, on Tuesday, announced a settlement agreement in which it will pay Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit against the company over the edited interview — in which two different versions of the vice president’s answer to the same question appeared in two different CBS broadcast. Trump, in the lawsuit, alleged “news distortion” which favored Democrats, while many legal and media experts considered the president’s suit baseless. Paramount chief Shari Redstone, however, has been pushing for the settlement because she and other Paramount executives viewed the lawsuit as a potential roadblock to a sale of the company to Skydance Media.

In a post Wednesday on X, Armen Keteyian — who served as a contributing correspondent to 60 Minutes for eight years before leaving CBS News in 2016 — completely condemned the move to settle.

“I spent seven years as the Chief Investigative Correspondent for CBS News and eight as a contributing correspondent to 60,” Keteyian said. “This Paramount settlement is the nadir for the network – a breach of the public trust Murrow, Cronkite, Hewitt and thousands of us worked decades to build.”

On Sunday, Oliver Darcy’s Status newsletter reported that the current roster of 60 Minutes correspondents signed a letter pleading with Paramount brass to “put up a fierce and unrelenting fight” against the lawsuit. But the plea went ignored.

Press advocates have blasted the settlement — with many concerned that it shows the president can intimidate media organizations into more favorable coverage.

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