Trump praises new CBS News chief during ’60 Minutes’ interview
President Trump praised changes Paramount has made to the leadership at CBS News, including the implementation of a controversial journalist as its editor-in-chief following Skydance’s acquisition of the sprawling media company this summer.
“And actually ’60 Minutes’ paid me a lotta money,” Trump said of his lawsuit against CBS during an extended interview on the network’s Sunday evening news program, the first he has given to one of its journalists in several years.
“And you don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you, and I’m sure you’re not — you have a great — I think you have a great, new leader, frankly, who’s the young woman that’s leading your whole enterprise is a great, from what I know,” Trump said.
The president was referring to Bari Weiss, a former New York Times columnist who quit the paper in 2020 criticizing its editorial direction and started her own media company that has been embraced by critics of mainstream media outlets.
Weiss was hired last month by Paramount’s chief executive David Ellison, the son of billionaire tech tycoon and Trump ally Larry Ellison.
“I don’t know her, but I hear she’s a great person,” Trump said of Weiss. “But ’60 Minutes’ was forced to pay me — a lot of money because they took her [Kamala Harris] answer out that was so bad, it was election-changing, two nights before the election. And they put a new answer in. And they paid me a lot of money for that.”
Trump sued “60 Minutes” late last year over an interview his legal team said the network deceptively edited to cast the former vice president in a positive light.
Paramount settled the president’s lawsuit for $16 million just weeks before its merger with Skydance won approval from Trump’s FCC. As part of its pledge to the FCC, Paramount promised to retool CBS News’s editorial direction to represent what it called a more “diverse” set of viewpoints.
Trump and his allies regularly attack mainstream media outlets and broadcast networks, some of which they argue the administration should do more to ensure media companies are serving the “public interest.”
“You can’t have fake news,” Trump told “60 Minutes.” “You’ve gotta have legit news. And I think that it’s happening. I see good things happening in the news. I really do. And I think one of the best things to happen is this show and new ownership, CBS and new ownership. I think it’s the greatest thing that’s happened in a long time to a free and open and good press.”