Too Fun to Check: Trump Negotiating Interview With … 60 Minutes?

Consider this a potential stress test — and coup — for the Bari Weiss era at CBS News. Maybe David Ellison’s $150 million is already paying dividends. Or perhaps setting up CBS and Paramount for another eight-figure payout to Donald Trump.

Who knows? This is what makes high-stakes gambling so exhilirating, no? 

According to Semafor, Trump has begun negotiating an interview on 60 Minutes, the same platform that attempted to make Kamala Harris sound coherent by repeated edits, thus sustaining her candidacy. That cost Paramount $16 million in a settlement with Trump earlier this year. Trump has forced CBS News into significant editorial changes and is apparently willing to give them a test run — with certain conditions:

The White House is in talks with 60 Minutes about conducting an upcoming interview with Trump, four people with knowledge of the discussions told Semafor. The White House communications team had initially considered scheduling the interview last Friday while Trump was in New York for a speech at the United Nations and the Ryder Cup. CBS staff had already begun preparing for the sitdown, which would have been conducted by correspondent Bill Whitaker, but the timeline for the potential interview shifted because of Trump’s schedule.

The network and administration are continuing to discuss an upcoming sitdown on the show, and the White House has told CBS it wants the conversation to be aired unedited, the sources said. Both CBS News and the White House declined to comment. …

Over the last year, the Trump team has been successful at extracting some editorial concessions from CBS News. As part of the July settlement, the network agreed to release full transcripts of future 60 Minutes interviews. And earlier this year, CBS News changed its editorial rules following complaints from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s team over an interview on the network’s Sunday show, Face The Nation. Following the criticism, CBS News announced that it would only air unedited interviews on Face the Nation going forward.

The potential sitdown also comes as the network’s new ownership is telegraphing that it wants to change CBS in a way that could align the network more closely with values shared by conservatives: Paramount’s new owners at Skydance are expected to soon announce the acquisition of the center-right digital publication The Free Press, and its founder Bari Weiss is expected to be tapped as the new editor-in-chief of CBS News.

All of this is interesting, but it brings up a question: why bother? Yes, CBS is a major broadcaster, but right now it ranks dead last in broadcast news, and its credibility is utterly shot. Trump is doing them a favor rather than the other way around by arranging an interview on a discredited platform. Why not reach out to independent media for this kind of interview? That would force CBS News (and other Protection Racket Media outlets) to cover it second-hand.

There’s also a sense of leverage here. Trump has the media right where he wants them; Gallup shows media distrust has hit bottom and is still digging. Why rescue them with a blockbuster interview, even with the conditions Trump sets, when Trump has leverage to undercut the entire mainstream media? This is a time to go for the jugular, rather than for a life preserver.

The answer likely is that Trump enjoys fighting with media too much to pass up the opportunity. I get that, actually; he’s done it most of his life, although before the Big Escalator Ride in 2015, mainly just with New York media. He clearly takes delight in mixing it up. However, what’s left to accomplish? Trump has already won those wars. He forced CBS and ABC into eight-figure settlements for corrupt coverage, obvious capitulations. 

Anyway. This will present a good test of whether CBS and Paramount take their settlement pledges seriously. Spending $150 million to put Bari Weiss in charge of the entire news division looks like an even bigger statement, of course, but that’s less of a test than this will be. Will 60 Minutes give Trump a fair opportunity to explain his positions? Will they try to chop up his answers for their own purposes? Will they push progressive narratives rather than provide a more honest discussion of the issues? CBS will want you to stay tuned, but I’m more inclined to tune out and catch up afterward. 

Editor’s note: If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again.  Help us push back against the Protection Racket Media! 

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