Freedom of the Press Foundation has retained a team of legal heavyweights known for taking on the Trump administration in its bid to block Paramount Global from settling a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump.
Trump brought a $20 million suit against CBS over editing of his former presidential opponent Kamala Harris‘ answer to a question about United States and Israeli relations in an October interview ofn”60 Minutes.”
Citing disagreement with CBS, President and CEO Wendy McMahon resigned, as reported by USA Today.
The lawsuit, considered “baseless” by experts, went into mediation in April 2025. CBS has denied accusations. CBS parent company Paramount Global may choose to settle in mediation, which raises journalistic concerns about emboldening the Trump administration‘s increasingly aggressive approach to American media.
Standard journalism practice is to edit content and video for time or space allowed. A teaser clip of Bill Whitaker‘s interview with the then-vice president shows a different response from Harris on October 6 versus an Oct. 7 broadcast of “60 Minutes.”
FPF, represented by Abbe David Lowell, his law firm Lowell & Associates and former diplomat and activist Norm Eisen, sent a formal demand letter to Paramount’s board of directors with objection to possible negotiations with Trump over the lawsuit.
“If the Board proceeds with any kind of backroom deal, it would be a blatant breach of its fiduciary duty. Trading away the credibility of CBS’s news division to curry favor with the Trump Administration is an improper and reckless act that will irreparably damage the company’s brand and destroy shareholder value. The Board is legally and morally obligated to protect the company, not auction off its integrity for regulatory approval,” Lowell said.
The letter notes recent reporting that Paramount Global has sought to resolve Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit over CBS News’ editing of an interview to entice the Trump administration to provide the necessary approval for a pending merger that the corporation is seeking to close. First Amendment experts have said the lawsuit is frivolous.
“If Paramount capitulates here, they will be eviscerating perhaps their most precious journalistic assets, CBS News and ‘60 Minutes,’ not to mention their own reputation and shareholder value. Beyond that, Paramount will be harming the First Amendment itself. They should not yield,” said Eisen, executive chair of the Democracy Defenders Action.
The prospective settlement has led to condemnation from press freedom advocates, who fear it would spark a new wave of censorial shakedowns by the Trump administration against news outlets.
“We can’t let corporate executives sell out press freedom to benefit themselves. Settling this case would not only irreparably damage Paramount and CBS, it would encourage further shakedowns of news outlets, film studios and others who depend on their First Amendment right to say things Donald Trump might not like. Authoritarianism is bad for business and Paramount should not further America’s democratic backslide, for the country’s sake and its own,” Freedom of the Press Foundation Advocacy Director Seth Stern said.
Brenna Frey, a counsel at Lowell & Associates and one of the attorneys on the case appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” last month to discuss her decision to resign from her prior firm, Skadden Arps, after that firm made a deal with Trump rather than contest his executive order targeting it over past legal representations that Trump did not like. Now she’s on the team seeking to stop CBS.
“I resigned from my former law firm for caving instead of fighting the threat of an unconstitutional executive order. I was able to tell my story on CBS’s ‘60 Minutes‘ because of the independence of a courageous news division, which is what’s at risk now,” Frey said.
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Rebecca Barnabi
