One of the things, and there was a lot of arguments about Trump that worries me very, very much is this movement toward authoritarianism and, going after media? Suing media, taking away, the authority that Congress has. [00:00:17] When you say suing media, what are you talking about? - The CBS lawsuit. - Among other things. But don't you think there's a real issue with what they did? No. You don't think that there's a real issue in editing conversations to give someone an answer that's different than what they really answered? [00:00:34] Last month, Joe Rogan and Senator Bernie Sanders had a pretty long debate about President Donald Trump's lawsuit against Paramount. Now, Paramount just agreed to settle that lawsuit for $16 million. Technically, the lawsuit was about Kamala Harris's [00:00:52] now infamous 60 minutes interview, but there's a lot going on behind the scenes that you should be aware of. It looks like Paramount wanted to settle because they were hoping to get some cookies from Trump's FCC. We'll get to that in just a moment. [00:01:08] But before we do, let's talk about the settlement itself. What it's stemming from, whether there was any credibility to it and more so. Look, Trump sued CBS news specifically, which is owned by Paramount. Paramount is the parent company for CBS news. [00:01:26] And this lawsuit was filed in October of last year. Now, his lawsuit came after CBS's 60 minutes released two different versions of an answer then Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris gave to a question about Israel. [00:01:44] Look, I think that both versions were bad. I think that she was terrible in most of these interviews. I'm just keeping it real. One of the versions, which was less edited, had more word salad involved. The more edited version was still bad, but it had less word salad involved. [00:02:03] So with that in mind, you know, you have essentially Donald Trump thinking or claiming that the more edited version, which actually aired on television, the television version of 60 minutes, [00:02:19] was edited specifically to give Kamala Harris an upper hand, essentially. CBS put their thumb on the scale and tried to make Kamala Harris look better in order to help her defeat Donald Trump in the presidential race. That is his claim. So he files this lawsuit. [00:02:37] The more edited or the less edited version was like a promo clip that was posted on social media. So both versions were out there. But nonetheless, Trump thought that there was something shady going on in order to hurt his chances of beating Kamala Harris. [00:02:53] And as we all know, not only did he beat Kamala Harris, he won the popular vote And these types of lawsuits, in my opinion, are super pathetic, petty, unnecessary. But the man loves lawsuits, so I'm not surprised that he's pursuing this now. [00:03:09] Cbs has opted to settle rather than fight this. And I should also note one other thing. And this is what I hate about broadcast news television news. We're kind of in the same camp, even though, yeah, we're kind of in the same camp. You have time constraints. [00:03:26] You have to go to break. You have hard outs, okay? You don't have endless time like you would in a podcast to have these long form conversations. So things unfortunately need to get cut out. Videos do need to get edited down in order to ensure that you make you [00:03:44] know the time obligations and go to the obligated breaks for commercials. And so, you should keep that in mind when it comes to television news, because again, it's different from what you would get online or through social media. [00:04:00] Now, per the settlement, the money will go toward legal fees and Trump's future presidential library. But not to Trump directly. By the way, Trump's presidential library is going to be like a palatial library from what it looks like. I mean, the guy is going to get like a fancy plane [00:04:16] from the Qataris for his library. He's going to get a $16 million settlement from Paramount that's going to go to his library. It's going to be a dope library. Paramount will not be forced, by the way, to apologize for the edits. And I'm glad that that's the case, because I don't think [00:04:31] that they did anything wrong here. And Paramount also announced that they're not going to, that they are going to release full transcripts of 60 minutes interviews with presidential candidates moving forward. And I think that's the right thing to do, and I'm glad that they're going to do that. [00:04:47] So if there's a silver lining that that would be it. I think it's important to release the full transcripts now. A spokesperson for Trump's legal team, said the settlement is another win for the American people, as he holds the fake news media accountable for their wrongdoing and deceit. [00:05:05] Again, both versions of Kamala Harris's answer were not good. Okay, they didn't make her look good, but okay. Now, as we mentioned, there's another angle to this story, and I think this is the real reason why Paramount opted to settle as opposed [00:05:21] to fight Trump in court over this. And I do think that if they fought Trump in court, they would have won. Now, Paramount has a pending merger with Skydance Media, and Trump's FCC would need to, approve the merger in order for it to move forward. [00:05:39] So it's an $8 billion merger, and it was announced in July of last year that proposed merger again is currently under review by the FCC. So you can probably see how the settlement could look like a quid pro quo. [00:05:54] If the merger all of a sudden goes through, in fact, the freedom of the Press Foundation, a paramount shareholder, by the way, had already threatened to sue the company's board over a potential settlement, arguing that it would damage the institution's reputation [00:06:12] and do harm to its journalists. Now, in recent months, both 60 minutes executive producer Bill Owens and CBS News and Stations chief executive Wendy McMahon. Yeah, McMahon resigned from their jobs and they both opposed [00:06:29] the settlement with Trump. They think that it's the wrong thing to do, and I can understand why that's the case. But Shari Redstone, who is Paramount's controlling shareholder, has been basically pushing for this settlement. The Washington Post reported in May. Let's take a look. [00:06:46] Paramount is seeking government approval to merge with another entertainment conglomerate, Skydance Media. And a settlement is seen internally as a way to ease that process. By the way, I do not agree with these conglomerates. [00:07:01] I don't agree with the mergers. I think that the FCC should block this merger. But now that Paramount has agreed to a $16 million ridiculous settlement for Trump, it's very likely that the merger will go through. Edward Klaris, a media attorney, told The Washington Post [00:07:18] that these kinds of settlements could lead to a bit of a vicious cycle. You think if you settle cases, you're going to send a message to your news team to not push the envelope for fear of people being sued, and you're going to court more cases against your company, because they might [00:07:36] think that if they sue or if they sue you, they're going to they're going to collect. No, that's definitely true. That's absolutely true. I think that this is going to, have a chilling effect on the way broadcast journalists do their jobs. [00:07:53] I mean, think about it. Trump has sued a pollster for getting a poll wrong. He thinks that the pollster was trying to put her thumb on the scale by claiming that Kamala Harris was going to beat him in one of the battleground states. You have Trump now suing CNN for simply [00:08:12] reporting on an app that informs Americans about where Ice is conducting operations so they can avoid those areas. CNN didn't promote it. CNN simply and merely reported on it. Now they're getting sued by Trump over that. [00:08:30] But a note that I'd like to give to anyone who considers themselves a journalist, who's working in the field and might feel tempted to run for the hills, or to play ball with Trump because they're afraid of a lawsuit. [00:08:46] Journalism isn't supposed to be, and has never really been a glamorous job. It is a difficult job. It's a job where you're supposed to attract the ire of people in positions of power. You're supposed to upset corrupt business owners who screw over the American people. [00:09:03] Being a journalist sucks. Everyone hates you. You anger all sorts of powerful people. And, if that's appealing to you, then you're meant to be a journalist. If that's unappealing to you and you're always running scared, [00:09:20] well, then maybe retire and find another profession to work in. Let the president sue you. Fight back because, the freedom of press is literally dependent on it. Otherwise. Yeah. Pack your bags, go home, do something else, work in any other field. [00:09:37] But, you shouldn't allow the president to have a chilling effect on journalism in a country that is supposed to value freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.