“60 Minutes” ran a highly partisan segment likening President Trump to a cold-blooded mob boss Sunday — even as its corporate parent, Paramount Global, is currently in talks to settle a $20 billion lawsuit with the Trump administration over election interference.
Correspondent Scott Pelley — who recently accused his bosses at Paramount of restricting journalistic independence in an astonishing on-air rant– compared the executive orders the president has enacted against multiple law firms to how a “mob boss” would use intimidation tactics.
“The fact is that these law firms are being told, ‘If you don’t play ball with us, maybe somethin’ really bad will happen to you,’” he said during Sunday night’s episode.
Pelley also sat down with Marc Elias, a longtime rival of Trump and a former Perkins Coie partner hired by the Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign, in the one-sided segment.
“Donald Trump is the walking embodiment of everything that is wrong with the American political system,” said Elias, who first crossed paths with Trump while a part of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
“And so when Donald Trump says that I am unethical or that I am undermining his vision of America, I say, ‘Boy I must be doin’ something right.’”
Sunday’s scathing “60 Minutes” segment comes as Paramount Global is in talks to settle its high-stakes lawsuit with the president.
Lawyers for Paramount and Trump have started mediation to resolve the president’s $20 billion lawsuit against the network over how “60 Minutes” edited a sit-down with then-Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris last fall.
The talks are also taking place as Paramount seeks approval of its merger with Skydance from the Federal Communications Commission, which is also probing the Harris interview for complaints of “news distortion.”
While “60 Minutes” brought out guests critical of the president, they did not feature anyone to argue in favor of Trump’s orders against law firms.
Last week, Pelley went rogue at the end of Sunday night’s episode during what appeared to be a simple tribute to Bill Owens, the longtime “60 Minutes” executive producer who quit in April over the company’s heavy-handed interference.
“Bill resigned Tuesday — it was hard on him and hard on us,” Pelley said in his closing remarks on the show he has worked on for more than 20 years.
“But he did it for us — and you,” he told viewers, then unexpectedly suggested that Owens’ exit could end the era of coverage being “accurate and fair.”
“Our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger,” he said, noting that it needs approval from the Trump administration.
Paramount boss Shari Redstone allegedly had expressed concerns to CBS CEO George Cheeks over segments critical of Trump and his policies, asking if the program could wait to run them until after a merger between Paramount and Skydance Media was sealed.
Read the full article here