George Clooney Torches CBS, ABC for Caving to Trump Lawsuits – And Trashes Bari Weiss

Tolga Akmen/Getty Images

George Clooney tore into CBS and ABC for settling defamation lawsuits brought by President Donald Trump, rather than fight them in court, and claimed that those decisions pointedly resulted in “where we are” as a country.

Clooney, whose father Nick Clooney spent decades in broadcast journalism, told Variety on Tuesday that the network’s should instead have told the president “go f*ck yourself.”

Last spring, Clooney portrayed CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow in a stage version of Good Night, and Good Luck just as CBS News was finalising a settlement with Trump, which came as parent company Paramount sought regulatory approval for its sale to Skydance. ABC News reached its own settlement with the president over a separate defamation claim in 2024.

“If CBS and ABC had challenged those lawsuits and said, ‘Go f*ck yourself,’ we wouldn’t be where we are in the country,” Clooney said. “That’s simply the truth.”

The actor said his concerns have deepened following changes inside CBS News under its new ownership. Paramount is now controlled by David Ellison, who has begun reshaping the network’s editorial direction.

Clooney singled out the appointment of Bari Weiss to CBS News editor-in-chief as a problem.

“Bari Weiss is dismantling CBS News as we speak,” Clooney says. “I’m worried about how we inform ourselves and how we’re going to discern reality without a functioning press.”

Variety’s Brent Lang added that the actor became visibly animated when discussing specific people he believed had failed to uphold journalism’s core responsibility of holding those in power to account since Trump returned to office, although the report did not mention any names.

The interview, conducted in New York City, dropped days after Clooney and his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, were formally granted French citizenship after years of living in the country.

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