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Dan Rather's comments on CBS/Paramount and Trump.


Nivek

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https://steady.substack.com/p/heartbreak-for-cbs-news?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=247881&post_id=156209726&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=v8bg&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

It’s not a surprise. Authoritarians must silence their perceived opposition. President Trump believes his No. 1 opponent is a free press. He has long demonized the media, calling it “the enemy of the American people.” He couldn’t be more wrong. A free press is not the enemy, and our Founding Fathers knew it.

They enshrined freedom of the press in the very first amendment to the Constitution, up at the top of the Bill of Rights — not because they were great fans of journalists, but rather because they knew, as Thomas Jefferson put it, that “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free ... it expects what never was and never will be.”

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Paramount is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar merger, which needs approval by the Federal Communications Commission, now run by Trump’s appointee. And Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder and board member, stands to make billions if the deal goes through. See where this is going?

CBS, but really Paramount, is in settlement talks with Trump and co., according to The New York Times, which by the way is one of the few independent national newspapers. “A settlement would be an extraordinary concession by a major U.S. media company to a sitting president, especially in a case in which there is no evidence that the network got facts wrong or damaged the plaintiff’s reputation,” wrote Lauren Hirsch, James B. Stewart, and Michael M. Grynbaum in The Times.

If a settlement is reached, some might characterize it as a payoff. “That’s called a bribe,” Richard Painter, President George W. Bush’s White House ethics lawyer, posted on X.

If CBS settles, it will be the third media company to do so since the election. ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential library after he sued for defamation. Meta is giving $22 million to the library to settle a suit Trump brought after his social media accounts were suspended for cause.

 

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2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Fucking disgusting.

Corporatism is out of control and is our number-one problem as a nation.  It also happens to be a big sign of a fascist government.

It's going to be hard to put that genie back in the bottle.

This is a nation that takes no issue when capital incorporates but furrows its brow when labor attempts to do the same.

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8 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

This is a nation that takes no issue when capital incorporates but furrows its brow when labor attempts to do the same.

have you read our history? lol. there has never been an era in this country when labor wasn't exploited in one way or another. why would we change what made us great in the first place?

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2 hours ago, Nivek said:

If CBS settles, it will be the third media company to do so since the election. ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential library after he sued for defamation. Meta is giving $22 million to the library to settle a suit Trump brought after his social media accounts were suspended for cause.

Any incoming President should start suing media and social media companies upon their election. You could easily pocket $100M, if those companies truly believe that you would blackball them from the WH. You would probably have to do so to at least one. And for companies it's worth the cost of admission and access to the President. 

I just don't understand how the courts can claim any of this legal and normal.

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Legality doesn't matter for anyone in charge anymore. Not even the perception of it. This is now Russia. The US armed forces are soon going to start becoming gutted in resources and competence. As well as every other government agency. 

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20 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Fucking disgusting.

Corporatism is out of control and is our number-one problem as a nation.  It also happens to be a big sign of a fascist government.

It's going to be hard to put that genie back in the bottle.

This is early 1920’s Italy. It took 20 years, a sitting king who did not like him, the Greek misadventure that ended with the Wehrmacht having to bail out the 3rd world level Italian Army and a populace that got sick of Il Duce before he was deposed. We quite literally have Mussolini with a dash of Japanese flavored nationalism from that era thrown together with your typical idiot white racists at the controls. Anyone expecting this to end quickly or peacefully might want to reassess this current national crisis.

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20 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Fucking disgusting.

Corporatism is out of control and is our number-one problem as a nation.  It also happens to be a big sign of a fascist government.

It's going to be hard to put that genie back in the bottle.

I would argue that our biggest problem is disinformation and the ability of Americans to understand truth vs fiction. Because it is impossible to generate support or opposition for any issue if there is no way to know what is true or not.  Corporatism, wealth inequality, racism, etc cannot be resolved without first having an informed public. 

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1 hour ago, Dbeasy said:

I would argue that our biggest problem is disinformation and the ability of Americans to understand truth vs fiction. Because it is impossible to generate support or opposition for any issue if there is no way to know what is true or not.  Corporatism, wealth inequality, racism, etc cannot be resolved without first having an informed public. 

Well, corporatism has been out of control for longer than disinformation.  And it's a big enabler of disinformation and undermining the first amendment and its purposes through weakening of the media by profit motive.

I would agree that disinformation and credulity toward it are a bigger current problem.

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At this rate Trump's Library will look something like the new Universal theme park. I was thinking that he'd just pocket the money, but MAGA World would probably make him more money. Well, as long as he doesn't run it himself.

Edited by SimonBolivar
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7 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

At this rate Trump's Library will look something like the new Universal theme park. I was thinking that he'd just pocket the money, but MAGA World would probably make him more money. Well, as long as he doesn't run it himself.

 

Biffs-panorama.jpg

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2 hours ago, SimonBolivar said:

At this rate Trump's Library will look something like the new Universal theme park. I was thinking that he'd just pocket the money, but MAGA World would probably make him more money. Well, as long as he doesn't run it himself.

Not one dime he received is going towards a library. He can specifically say the money is going towards buying him his first big boy book to read about a cat and a hat and he is still pocketing it and sending it to Russia to pay off his debts.

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