Longtime “60 Minutes” producer Lowell Bergman said Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump is “a lot worse” than the similar situation CBS News found itself in over proposed coverage of the tobacco industry in the 1990s.
“We’re in a really grim moment, when absurd lawsuits and huge amounts of money come together to damage the public interest,” Bergman told The New York Times’ “The Daily” podcast on Monday.
Bergman said he believed Trump’s lawsuit against Paramount was “even weaker” than the lawsuit the president filed against ABC and George Stephanopoulos, which was settled for $15 million late last year.
Stephanopoulos had said on air several times that Trump was found “liable for rape” in the civil case E. Jean Carroll brought against him. In fact, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse, which carries a different definition in New York, where the case took place.
“A reasonable jury could interpret Stephanopoulos’ statements as defamatory,” Magistrate Judge Reid wrote last year. “Stephanopoulos stated 10 times that a jury — or juries — had found plaintiff liable for rape.”
The judge’s comments, coupled with the fear a Florida jury would award Trump more than the $15 million he ultimately received, pushed Disney towards settling.
On Monday, Bergman said ABC “capitulated” to Trump — and Paramount followed suit last week with its own settlement.
“Every legal expert thought it was sort of nonsense, right? It’s nonsense,” Bergman said about Trump’s lawsuit against Paramount. “It’s done to intimidate, and so the result will be that you have litigation, and it becomes all-consuming when you’re in the middle of it.”
Trump initially sued Paramount for $20 billion over how “60 Minutes” edited an interview with Kamala Harris last year, arguing it was “false advertising” and election tampering. The president’s lawyers later argued the segment caused him “mental anguish.”
A settlement was reached last week, with the payment including “plaintiffs’ fees and costs” as well as a donation that will be allocated to a “future presidential library.” Paramount also said that “in the future, ’60 Minutes’ will release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after such interviews have aired, subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.”
Bergman added he believed the settlement is a bigger smear on CBS’ legacy than when the network’s lawyers blocked a “60 Minutes” interview with Jeffrey Wigand, a whistleblower from Brown & Williamson tobacco company. The interview ultimately ran months later, after the Wall Street Journal reported on Wigand’s allegations against the tobacco industry — all of which eventually served as the drama for Michael Mann’s 1999 political thriller “The Insider,” which featured Al Pacino playing Bergman.
“It’s not like a case involving tobacco and the pressure that was coming down was easy to see where it would be coming from,” Bergman said. “This is the president of the United States, and this is without precedent in the history of this country.”
Bergman added journalists have to be a “little bit depressed” about what the future holds for the profession.
“The fact is, that anyone working at ’60 Minutes’ from now on has to worry about what is going to be allowed on the air,” Bergman said.
Listen to Bergman’s full interview on “The Daily” here.
