Lesley Stahl on What a Settlement with Donald Trump Would Mean for CBS News

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. One of the hottest tickets on Broadway these days, in fact it just broke a box office record, is the play Good Night and Good Luck, and it's adapted from George Clooney's 2005 film. Clooney is on stage as Edward R.

Murrow, the CBS news anchor. Murrow was the most respected journalist in his time, and the play dramatizes his stand against the lies and corruption of one of the most powerful men in America in mid century, Senator Joseph McCarthy. It's an inspirational story, especially at a moment when Donald Trump, someone far more powerful than McCarthy ever was, is using lawsuits and raw intimidation to bring the media to heel. Donald Trump sued CBS eventually for $20 billion, over 60 minutes his interview with Kamala Harris. By all legal accounts, it's a preposterous suit, and yet Sherry Redstone, the head of Paramount Global, which is CBS's parent company, is actively trying to negotiate a settlement.

The reason is that she wants to sell her company Paramount, and to do so, she needs government approval. Redstone's critics and people at 60 Minutes contend that settling the lawsuit is in effect a surrender, a big payoff to the president. And yet Redstone has already made an offer to settle of $15 million. Trump, however, says that's not enough, and he wants an apology. So this is a very perilous time at CBS.

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