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'Could Amount to a Bribe': Group Threatens Lawsuit If Paramount Caves to Trump
"Corporations that own news outlets should not be in the business of settling baseless lawsuits that clearly violate the First Amendment and put other media outlets at risk."
May 24, 2025
If Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS News, settles a $20 billion lawsuit brought by U.S. President Donald Trump, it could face another lawsuit from a leading press freedom organization.
The Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), a Paramount shareholder, notified company executives in a letter on Friday that a settlement with Trump "could amount to a bribe" to the president and his administration "for their approving and not impeding" a merger of Paramount and the entertainment company Skydance.
FPF addressed its letter to Shari Redstone, Paramount's controlling shareholder. In recent weeks, Redstone—who stands to profit from federal approval of the merger—has come under fire for advocating a settlement with Trump and keeping tabs on CBS coverage of the president, who claims the outlet deceptively edited an interview it conducted with Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 election.
Paramount's leadership has reportedly discussed settling the Trump lawsuit for up to $20 million. Redstone has privately pushed for a settlement in hopes that it will "clear the way for the merger's approval," The Wall Street Journalreported last month.
"I am writing to demand that you institute an immediate litigation hold, as FPF plans to file a shareholder derivative lawsuit on behalf of Paramount in the event of a settlement by Paramount," wrote Seth Stern, FPF's director of advocacy. "We expect that other long-term shareholders will join the suit."
FPF notes that a derivative lawsuit "is a procedure that allows shareholders of a company to recover damages incurred due to impropriety by executives and directors."
"Any damages award would go to Paramount, not FPF," the group added.
“I’m proud that @freedom.press is doing what CBS’s corporate owners won’t — standing up for press freedom and against authoritarian shakedowns. People who aren’t willing to defend the First Amendment should not be in the news business,” says @johncusack.bsky.social freedom.press/issues/we-pl...
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— Freedom of the Press Foundation (@freedom.press) May 23, 2025 at 7:20 PM
The lawsuit warning comes after a trio of U.S. senators cautioned that Paramount "may be engaging in potentially illegal conduct" by pursuing a settlement with Trump in exchange for approval of the Skydance merger.
"Paramount appears to be attempting to appease the administration in order to secure merger approval," wrote Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in a May 19 letter to Redstone.
Internally, Paramount executives have acknowledged that settling the Trump suit "could expose directors and officers to liability in potential future shareholder litigation or criminal charges for bribing a public official," the Journalreported in February.
In a statement on Friday, Stern said that "corporations that own news outlets should not be in the business of settling baseless lawsuits that clearly violate the First Amendment and put other media outlets at risk."
"A settlement of Trump's meritless lawsuit may well be a thinly veiled effort to launder bribes through the court system," said Stern. "Not only would it tank CBS's reputation but, as three U.S. senators recently explained, it could put Paramount executives at risk of breaking the law."
"Our mission as a press freedom organization is to defend the rights of journalists and the public, not the financial interests of corporate higher-ups who turn their backs on them. When you run a news organization, you have the responsibility to protect First Amendment rights, not abandon them to line your own pockets," Stern added. "We hope Paramount will reconsider the dangerous path it appears to be contemplating but, if not, we are prepared to pursue our rights as shareholders. And we hope other Paramount shareholders will join us."
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'Enough Is Enough': Sanders Slams Redstone Over Ouster of CBS News CEO Amid Trump Suit
"Do not capitulate to Trump's attack on a free press," Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote. "Do not settle Trump's bogus lawsuit against '60 Minutes.'"
May 19, 2025
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday reiterated his call for the owner of CBS News' parent company to stand up to President Donald Trump following news that the outlet's CEO was forced to step down from her post.
"Bill Owens, the producer of CBS's '60 Minutes,' resigned in protest. Wendy McMahon, the head of CBS News, has now resigned," Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote on social media. "I say to Shari Redstone: Enough is enough. Do not capitulate to Trump's attack on a free press. Do not settle Trump's bogus lawsuit against '60 Minutes.'"
Redstone is the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global, which is currently in talks to settle Trump's lawsuit against CBS News. The suit, which experts have criticized as baseless and a threat to press freedom, accuses the outlet of deceptively editing an interview it conducted ahead of the 2024 election with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Redstone has advocated settling the Trump suit as she seeks federal approval of a merger deal between Paramount and the entertainment company Skydance. Semaforreported last month that Redstone, whose family stands to reap a large windfall if the deal goes through, had been keeping close tabs on "60 Minutes" segments to supervise coverage of Trump.
Redstone's monitoring triggered "a series of events that ended with the Tuesday resignation of the show's longtime producer," Bill Owens.
The New York Timesnoted Monday that "at the time, Ms. McMahon took pains to signal her support for Mr. Owens, saying that 'standing behind' the producer 'was an easy decision for me.'"
"Her embrace of Mr. Owens and '60 Minutes' put Ms. McMahon at odds with Paramount executives who were anxious about the show's reporting about the Trump administration," the Times added. "Within CBS News, some journalists expected Ms. McMahon to be gone within months. But the timing of her announcement, less than 24 hours after Sunday's season finale of '60 Minutes,' still raised eyebrows."
In a letter to Redstone earlier this month, Sanders and a group of Senate Democrats warned that settling the Trump lawsuit would "only embolden him to shake down, extort, and silence CBS and other media outlets that have the courage to report about issues that Trump may not like."
"Stand up for freedom of the press and our democracy," the senators urged Redstone. "Do not capitulate to this dangerous move to authoritarianism."
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Critics Rip Private Equity Firm's Deal to Buy Simon & Schuster as 'Dark Day for Publishing'
"I guess all of corporate book publishing is beholden to investors above all else but this really makes it blatant," said one literary podcaster.
Aug 07, 2023
American literati recoiled in howls of articulate indignation Monday following news that multinational mass media conglomerate Paramount Global has agreed to sell venerable publishing house Simon & Schuster to KKR, described by one critic as "possibly the most vile example of a private equity firm that acquires, eviscerates, and kills off companies for profit."
The New York Timesreports KKR will pay $1.62 billion in an all-cash deal for the 99-year-old publishing giant, which was first put up for sale in 2020.
Last October, a proposed $2.2 billion sale to Penguin Random House (PRH) collapsed after a federal judge sided with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which opposed the deal on antitrust grounds.
"I guess all of corporate book publishing is beholden to investors above all else but this really makes it blatant," tweeted Maris Kreizman, host of the Maris Review literary podcast. "As we saw in DOJ v. PRH, the people at the top truly don't know how the sausage gets made. And now a private equity firm will be at the tippy top. What could go wrong?"
Dashka Slater, the New York Times bestselling author of The 57 Bus—which won the Stonewall Book Award in 2018—said she was "horrified" to get an email from Simon & Schuster "announcing their acquisition by kleptocrats KKR."
"This is a dark day for publishing," Slater added.
According to Words Rated, an international data and analytics research group focusing on the publishing industry, over 80% of the nearly $91.4 billion annual U.S. book trade is controlled by the "Big Five" publishers—Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster.
Often referred to as "vulture capitalists" because they target financially floundering companies for acquisition before gutting their operations and personnel to maximize profit, private equity firms own or control scores of publishers, according to the market research site mergr.
KKR media chair Richard Sarnoff called the deal "a compelling opportunity to help Simon & Schuster become an even stronger partner to literary talent by investing in the expansion of the company's capabilities and distribution networks."
Jamie Ford, another Times bestselling author, had just "one question for the KKR board."
"What," he asked, "was the last book you read?"
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