Former CBS anchor Dan Rather calls Paramount’s $16 million deal with Trump ‘a sell-out to extortion’

Rather worked at CBS News for 44 years.

Dan Rather in 2017.Credit: Mike Coppola/Getty

Dan Rather, who worked at CBS News for 44 years before his 2006 departure, is speaking out against the settlement his former network’s parent company reached with President Donald Trump.

Trump had sued Paramount over the way CBS News edited a 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. As part of the agreement, the company will pay $16 million, including Trump’s legal fees, with most of the sum going to the president’s future presidential library. In addition, Paramount will release transcripts of future interviews with presidential candidates. But the company made no apology.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to press at the White House on June 27.Hu Yousong/Xinhua via Getty

A Trump spokesperson called the settlement “a win for the American people.”

The career newsman sees it differently.

“Trump knew if he put the pressure on and threatened and just held that they would fold, because there’s too much money on the table,” Rather told Variety on Wednesday. “Trump is now forcing a whole news organization to pay millions of dollars for doing something protected by the Constitution — which is, of course, free and independent reporting. Now, you take today’s sell-out. And that’s what it was: It was a sell-out to extortion by the President. Who can now say where all this ends?”

Rather, who has spoken out against Trump before, said that he was “disappointed, but I wasn’t surprised” with what transpired.

The settlement comes as Paramount seeks federal approval for a merger with another company, Skydance.

“Big billionaire business people make decisions about money,” Rather said. “We could always hope that they will make an exception when it comes to freedom of the press, but it wasn’t to be.”

He called it “a sad day for journalism.”

“It’s a sad day for 60 Minutes and CBS News,” continued Rather, who left the network after being removed from the anchor chair over a story about President George W. Bush’s time in the Texas Air National Guard. “I hope people will read the details of this and understand what it was. It was distortion by the President and a kneeling down and saying, ‘yes, sir,’ by billionaire corporate owners.”

Trump had claimed that the news program deceptively edited Harris’ interview — his lawsuit called it “news distortion” — to affect the election in which she ran against against Trump.

Rather, a former 60 Minutes contributor, argued that Paramount “didn’t have to settle.”

“You settle a lawsuit when you’ve done something wrong,” he said. “60 Minutes did nothing wrong. It followed accepted journalistic practices. Lawyers almost unanimously said the case wouldn’t stand up in court.”

He said that his support for his former colleagues is “total, absolute.”