Alisyn Camerota Predicts Trump Approved Paramount Deal Means People Will Be Force Fed MAGA ‘Propaganda’
Alisyn Camerota predicted President Donald Trump’s settlement with Paramount will lead to potential MAGA “propaganda” hitting the airwaves.
Camerota was joined on her Sanity with Alisyn & Dave podcast by Oliver Darcy and Jon Passantino to discuss whether Trump is pushing a “media coup” with his battles against various networks and publications. Camerota, Darcy, and Passantino all previously worked for CNN.
During a discussion on Paramount’s recent settlement with Trump, Camerota argued the deal has “wide-reaching implications” that could include networks being forced to air “propaganda.”
“Even if you don’t watch CBS, you can’t help but be affected by the $20 million side deal that you’re talking about of propaganda. I mean, let’s let’s call it what it is. You can call it PR or you can call propaganda. Either. Choose. Doesn’t matter to me. And if you’re gonna have to watch MAGA ads, that affects all of us,” Camerota said.
Trump recently claimed in a Truth Social post that his settlement from Paramount was worth far more than just the original $16 million. “Paramount/CBS/60 Minutes have today paid $16 Million Dollars in settlement, and we also anticipate receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars. This is another in a long line of VICTORIES over the Fake News Media,” the president wrote.
Paramount agreed to settle a lawsuit from Trump over reporting on CBS’ 60 Minutes. The settlement came as the company was trying to get final approval on a merger with Skydance, which they have received from the FCC. Paramount said in a statement after Trump’s post that their settlement “does not include PSAs or anything related to PSAs.”
On the Sanity podcast, the three ex-CNNers questioned why Paramount had not pushed back more on the administration, similar to AT&T (then CNN’s parent company) when they were merging with Time Warner during Trump’s first administration.
“There was another way to do it. Exhibit A was CNN and AT&T fighting back against Trump’s wishes. Why didn’t Paramount do that?” Camerota said.
“They didn’t want to go to court fight the administration spend a bunch of money. Doing that they just rather I think, have a settlement done and move on with their lives,” Darcy said.
The media reporter predicted CBS would be making a shift towards the right under new leadership. He also argued the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show just before the merger was finalized can be chalked up to Trump demands. CBS said cancelling the show was a financial decision.
“They’re definitely going to move that network further to the right. They’ve talked to Bari Weiss, the owner of the conservative Free Press, we reported at Status, to come in in a very high level position at CBS. Colbert mysteriously gets axed right before this deal goes through, they say it has nothing to do with them, but I think everyone can kind of read the political subtext there,” he said.
Passantino and Darcy argued that self-censorship could be the biggest worry in media going forward, noting that Colbert getting axed and Trump publicly targeting other vocal critics like Jimmy Kimmel can send a “chill” down the spines of people working in newsrooms.
“Self-censorship is a big part of this. And so if you’re going to cancel Stephen Colbert, whether or not it’s officially for that reason or not, that I think sends chills into your newsroom or onto your other platforms,” Passantino said.
Watch above via Sanity with Alisyn & Dave.
