‘Outraged and Terrified’: Mark Halperin Sounds the Alarm Over Trump’s ‘Intimidation of Media’ and CBS’s ‘Bended Knee’

Mark Halperin sounded the alarm over President Donald Trump’s “intimidation tactics” on a recent episode of his 2WAY show, in which he expressed his concern over CBS bowing to his demand in order to get the FCC to approve a merger between Paramount Global and Skydance.

“As incredibly unorthodox as Donald Trump is regarding the regulation of media and the intimidation of media, his FCC chairman is a maniac. And I don’t say maniac pejoratively, I just-, he’s unlike any FCC chair ever. The direct way — although he’s the master of indirect when he wants to be — but the direct way in which he talks about the influence he does have and can have over these companies is extraordinary to me, “began Halperin. “I find him very engaging, I find him very entertaining, but as a protector and defender of the First Amendment and as a traditionalist in a lot of ways, probably more than is healthy, I do find it a little troubling and sometimes very troubling to see the party that ostensibly believes in small government and the private sector more than their opposition party, I find it troubling how much they’re interfering with these private sector companies.”

“And what I find even more troubling is the bended knee, the payment for the 60 Minutes piece of the interview with Kamala Harris, I believe is more egregious than these law firms that have settled under the intimidation tactics of Donald Trump. It’s about as egregious as I’ve seen a media company do, at least in a way that’s so public,” he argued.

Halperin then moved on to the firing of late-night host Stephen Colbert:

And I do — really do — respect Stephen Colbert. I understand his brand of comedy, again, unlike some of the other hosts, and I think he had a great run. But I don’t get these people who make millions of dollars, who can’t see the handwriting on the wall. If he really wanted to keep his show, he should have gone to CBS and said, “Let’s find a different model cause I know we’re losing money.” He probably didn’t know how much, but I’m sure he knew they were losing money. And as for criticizing his corporate bosses, and as for criticizing the president, to the extent those played a role in his losing his job, I couldn’t denounce it in stronger terms. And if I worked at Paramount, if I was going to be part of the Skydance empire, whether it’s CBS News or elsewhere, South Park, etc., I would be outraged and terrified that what little credibility they have as an editorially sound entity is about to be completely obliterated.

Despite his disgust at the multimillion-dollar settlement Paramount reached with Trump, Halperin went on to nevertheless criticize 60 Minutes for its “liberal media bias and anti-Trump coverage.”

Watch above via 2WAY on YouTube.