4 weeks ago
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President Donald Trump has apparently suffered from “mental anguish” as a result of a CBS News “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris last year, his lawyers alleged in court documents.
Trump’s attorneys made the claim Wednesday in a motion to deny Paramount Global’s request to dismiss Trump’s lawsuit, which First Amendment experts have called “frivolous and dangerous,” against CBS over the editing of the interview. (Paramount Global is the parent company of CBS.)
In the October-filed lawsuit obtained by HuffPost, Trump accuses the network of “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion.” This, according to the suit, was exhibited through two slightly differing clips of Harris discussing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with journalist Bill Whitaker.
According to court documents filed Wednesday, Trump’s attorneys claim “this led to widespread confusion and mental anguish of consumers, including plaintiffs, regarding a household name of the legacy media apparently deceptively distorting its broadcasts, and then resisting attempts to clear the public record.”
The interview “forced” Trump to “redirect significant time, money and effort to correcting the public record,” the document said.
The motion also called the president a “content creator,” whose content creation “was damaged by the attention diverted to Defendants’ distorted programming.”
The network maintains that the interview was “not doctored or deceitful.”
“In reporting the news, journalists regularly edit interviews – for time, space or clarity. In making these edits, 60 Minutes is always guided by the truth and what we believe will be most informative to the viewing public – all while working within the constraints of broadcast television,” CBS said in a February statement.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the president turned down a $15 million settlement offer, which falls short of his desired compensation: more than $25 million and a CBS News apology.
The president has also threatened to file another lawsuit against the company over what he claims is biased reporting, according to the WSJ.
Trump has repeatedly gone after “60 Minutes” and has so far unsuccessfully called on CBS to lose its broadcast license on multiple occasions.
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In one of his countless social media rants in April, he slammed the show after choosing to hate-watch it.
“They are not a ‘News Show,’ but a dishonest Political Operative simply disguised as ‘News,’ and must be responsible for what they have done, and are doing,” the president wrote at the time. “They should lose their license!”
At least two top executives, including CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon and “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens, have stepped down as the network seeks to make a deal with Trump.
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