Shari Redstone said the decision for Paramount Global, the media conglomerate she just sold to Skydance Media, to pay President Donald Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit against CBS was a “no-brainer” — and she had expected the company to pay far more to the sitting president to make the litigation go away.
“This case was never as black-and-white as people assumed,” Redstone said in an interview with the New York Times, published Tuesday. She also told the paper, “I believed it was always in Paramount’s best interest to settle. We may not like the world we live in, but a board has to do what’s in the best interest of shareholders.”
When Redstone — who had removed herself from negotiations with Trump’s lawyers over the lawsuit — received word from her lawyer that Paramount had reached a settlement for $16 million, she said, “I was blown away,” because she was expected the company to have to pay a higher price.
“How did they do it? I don’t know, and I didn’t ask,” Redstone said.
According to the Times story, Redstone found most of Trump’s claims about CBS News to be “hyperbolic” — however, she thought Trump had a point about a lack of “balance” in the news division’s coverage. Specifically, Redstone had complained to George Cheeks, then CEO of CBS (and now chair of TV media at the new Paramount Skydance), about a “60 Minutes” segment featuring former U.S. State Department officials who quit their jobs to protest American support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
“We needed more balance” at CBS News, Redstone told the Times, citing that “60 Minutes” report and “others over the years.” She added, “Part of me thought, maybe Trump could accomplish what I never got done.”
Trump previously claimed he had a side deal with Skydance under which the new owners of the merged company would contribute $20 million in advertising, public service announcements and “similar programming” that promote causes he favors. That would be in addition to Paramount Global’s $16 million payment to settle Trump’s lawsuit accusing “60 Minutes” of deceptively editing a pre-election interview with Kamala Harris.
Ellison, asked at an Aug. 7 press event whether he had a side deal promising Trump free advertising, did not directly deny that he did. He reiterated the company’s position that it wasn’t involved in Paramount Global‘s settlement with Trump “in any way,” and said, “We are not going to politicize anything today… We want to entertain first.”
According to the Times article, a lawyer for Skydance at the law firm Latham & Watkins contacted a lawyer for Redstone after the Paramount-Trump settlement was announced. According to “notes of the conversation” dated July 3 that were “subsequently circulated within Paramount,” the Skydance lawyer said reports of a side deal between Trump and Skydance CEO David Ellison were “unmitigated false bullshit” and that it was “important for Shari to know this.”
Redstone, regarding the purported side deal between Ellison and Trump, told the Times, “I hope it isn’t true.”
On Aug. 7, Skydance officially closed its takeover of Paramount Global, ending the Redstone family’s decades-long control over Viacom, Paramount and CBS.
In the nearly 5,400-word story, Redstone revealed that the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians sealed her decision to try to sell Paramount Global. As the Times noted, Redstone is “an ardent supporter of Israel whose ex-husband, Yitzhak Korff (known as Ira), is a rabbi and direct descendant of the founder of the Hasidic movement,” while Redstone’s son Tyler is also a rabbi.
“Once [the Oct. 7 attacks] happened, I wanted out,” she said in the interview. “I wanted to support Israel, and address issues around antisemitism and racism.”
Redstone also was tired of the headaches involved in running Paramount Global.
“When my father brought me into Viacom, it was fun,” Redstone said, per the Times. “Once that battle [over the merger of Viacom and CBS] began, it was no fun. I’ve been in constant litigation.” She said that after her father died in 2020, “My legacy was to create security for my family and to put the company in good hands.”
According to the Times article, Redstone had not expected Trump’s lawsuit against CBS over the “60 Minutes” Harris interview to “affect the Skydance merger.” Redstone’s advisers indicated that after Trump won the 2024 presidential election “he might well drop the lawsuit.”
The Redstone family opted to settle the case with Trump because they were concerned that “Mr. Trump’s lawyers could cherry-pick raw footage and internal communications and do more damage to CBS News’s reputation than any settlement would,” according to the Times article. Specifically, Redstone cited an October 2023 interview of President Biden conducted by “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley in which “the president had seemed drowsy and had to be prodded to answer.” Redstone and her son Tyler “worried that CBS might be accused of editing the interview to conceal Mr. Biden’s failings,” per the Times story.
Meanwhile, Stephen Colbert had called the Paramount payment “a big fat bribe” to Trump on the July 14 episode of “The Late Show.” Three days later, CBS announced its decision to cancel “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” for “purely” financial reasons. Cheeks on July 17 had called Redstone to inform her of the cancellation.
Per the Times article, “While she didn’t necessarily disagree with the Colbert decision, Ms. Redstone said, she was mostly distressed that she hadn’t been consulted.”
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