Longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft, now retired, dished on how his former colleagues are dealing with their guardian firm’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over an interview he baselessly claimed to be deceptively edited.
The choice to settle has put a dent in morale amongst CBS Information’ journalists, Kroft instructed Jon Stewart on a Monday evening episode of “The Day by day Present.”
However Trump regards the state of affairs a lot in another way, Kroft mentioned.
“The $16 million was tribute. That’s how he appears to be like at it,” he instructed Stewart at one level. “Tribute to the king.”
The so-called tribute could play an element within the proposed merger between CBS Information’ guardian firm, Paramount World, and Skydance Media.
“Yeah, it was a shakedown. That’s what I’d name it,” Kroft mentioned of the cost. “Some folks name it extortion. That’s a authorized time period. ‘Shakedown’ is extra colloquial.”
Stewart jumped in: “Clearly, that is opinion. Is that this purely Paramount shopping for their means? They’re being offered proper now to a gentleman who’s pals with the president, Larry Ellison and his son, David Ellison, Skydance. Was this settlement only a cost in order that this merger can undergo and never be challenged by Trump’s FCC?”
Kroft mentioned Trump was trying to settle a score with “60 Minutes” and recommended he’s certainly utilizing the Federal Communications Fee to do it.
“Now, that strikes me as — and I’m clearly not a lawyer. However I did watch ‘Goodfellas,’” Stewart joked. “That sounds unlawful.”
“Sure, it does,” Kroft mentioned. “I feel it’s unlawful. I feel it’s a shakedown.”
At one other level, Kroft acknowledged that he was nonetheless within the loop on inside gossip at CBS Information, and mentioned he agreed with Stewart that the settlement was “devastating” to folks there with a mission to supply good journalism.
“‘Devastating’ is an effective phrase,” Kroft mentioned, including that he thinks there’s “a variety of worry” within the newsroom.
“Concern of shedding their job. Concern of what’s occurring to the nation. Concern of shedding the First Modification. All of these issues,” he mentioned.
The “60 Minutes” interview in query featured former Vice President Kamala Harris and aired final fall throughout her bid for the presidency. The community aired a portion of her response to a query about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu throughout a morning present, and a unique portion of her response throughout “60 Minutes” when it aired within the night.
Trump thought the half included within the precise program made Harris look higher. He went as far as to counsel CBS Information was making an attempt to govern the election in her favor. Notably, nevertheless, the settlement with the community didn’t embrace an apology to Trump.
Stewart confirmed an instance of a very misleading edit: a Fox News interview with Trump that reduce out his full response to a query on whether or not he would declassify recordsdata associated to the late intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump responded, “Yeah, yeah, I might. I suppose I might. I feel that much less so as a result of, you understand, you don’t need to have an effect on folks’s lives if there’s phony stuff in there as a result of there’s a variety of phony stuff with that complete world.”
Fox Information cropped his reply after, “Yeah, yeah, I might.”
Watch the entire interview under.