Free Republic

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass could both face federal charges over their response to ICE raids in the city, President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has warned. As violence tore apart sections of downtown LA, Compton and the suburb of Paramount, the administration has accused the Golden State Dems of fueling tensions, which exploded in riots on Saturday. “Someone is going to lose their life,” Homan warned, speaking to NBC News. He said that he has not ruled out asking the Department of Justice to prosecute the elected officials for allegedly having a role in...

Shari Redstone-controlled Paramount is poised to settle a closely watched legal battle with President Trump over alleged deceptive editing of a controversial “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris – but warring factions within the company have delayed the move, On The Money has learned. The media giant is said to be willing to spend up to $50 million to end the $20 billion lawsuit brought by Trump, thus lifting a legal black cloud that is that is hampering Redstone’s plans to sell Paramount, and its CBS News subsidiary at the center of the lawsuit, to independent studio Skydance in a...

Pressure is mounting on Paramount Global from both the inside and outside as it considers settling a high-stakes lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump. Lawyers for Trump and Paramount entered mediation last week, signaling the company’s potential willingness to resolve the whopping $20 billion suit filed by Trump accusing CBS News of election interference over its handling of the “60 Minutes” interview last year with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. That interview, which was part of a primetime election special that also featured her Democratic running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, earned an Emmy nomination last week for Outstanding Edited Interview....

Billionaire Barry Diller has come out as gay - but insists he enjoyed a full sexual relationship with fashion designer wife Diane Von Furstenberg. Diller, a renowned media exec who previously served as CEO for both Fox and Paramount, opened up about his homosexuality in a soul-baring article penned for New York magazine Tuesday. The 83-year-old credited with creating the Fox channel wrote of Von Furstenberg: 'While there have been a good many men in my life, there has only ever been one woman. 'And she didn’t come into my life until I was 33 years old.' Diller and Von...

Last week, 60 Minutes’ executive producer Bill Owens resigned in protest — but Owens and the rest of the news program have never taken responsibility for their own corruption.Last week, Bill Owens, the executive producer of CBS’ flagship news program 60 Minutes, resigned, “citing encroachments on his journalistic independence,” per The New York Times. In the first show since the news of Owens’ resignation broke, 60 Minutes ended the program with a glowing, if dubious, tribute to Owens that has since gone viral online. The program took the unusual step of alleging unethical behavior by CBS’ corporate parent Paramount for...

Adrienne Roark, CBS News’ president of editorial and newsgathering, is leaving the company for a senior position at Tegna. Her exit comes just seven months after being named president of the operation. Her departure comes at a time when CBS is facing a $20 billion lawsuit from President Trump, who has claimed CBS and “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with Kamala Harris leading up to the 2024 election. Roark’s exit also comes as Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, and Skydance Media are moving closer towards a planned merger — a deal that was given the green light...

Another day, another half-truth from the mainstream media. This time, CBS’s 60 Minutes wants you to believe Kristina Drye was “fired” from USAID during the agency’s chaotic shutdown. But there’s a problem with that narrative—she wasn’t a USAID employee. Not even close. Drye was a speechwriter working for XLA and Jefferson Partners, firms that provided services for USAID Administrator Samantha Power. When Power resigned, Drye’s contract ended. That’s not a firing. That’s what happens when your boss leaves and the job disappears. But CBS didn’t bother telling you that, did they? The USAID shutdown wasn’t some random event—it was part...

FIRST ON FOX: President Trump scored a victory on Tuesday when a judge deemed CBS and Paramount’s motion to dismiss "moot" as his election interference and news distortion lawsuit moves forward. Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS News in October, alleging election interference over its handling of a "60 Minutes" interview, accusing the network of aiding his Democrat rival Vice President Kamala Harris through deceptive editing one month before the election. Last week, Trump’s legal team amended the original lawsuit after the release of the unedited transcript and raw footage of its controversial "60 Minutes" interview. The lawsuit...

President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against CBS News was expanded following the release of the unedited transcript and raw footage of its “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. According to a late-Friday filing from Trump’s legal team reviewed by Fox News Digital, the lawsuit is adding CBS News’ parent company Paramount Global as a defendant, citing how the “60 Minutes” election special was platformed on its Paramount+ streaming service. Additionally, the lawsuit is adding Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, as a plaintiff. “Representative Jackson is a consumer of broadcast and digital news media content in this State, District, and Division,...

CBS News staffers are reportedly furious over parent company Paramount Global’s intent to reach a settlement of a $10 billion lawsuit filed by President Trump over a controversial “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. Journalists at the Tiffany Network’s news division are up in arms as Paramount chairwoman Shari Redstone green-lighted talks with the president’s representatives over a payout, the Status newsletter reported on Friday. Then-candidate Trump filed a lawsuit in October in which he accused the long-running investigative program “60 Minutes” of manipulating an interview with Harris in a way that was unfavorable to him. Insiders...

CBS is considering settling a $10 billion lawsuit brought by Trump over its deceptively edited ’60 Minutes’ interview with Kamala Harris. CBS executives are reportedly worried ongoing litigation with President Trump will interfere with a merger with Skydance. “Paramount, owner of CBS, its namesake studio and several cable channels, has a major piece of business in front of the new administration: its planned merger with Skydance Media,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “It’s become clear to executives at both companies that Trump’s dissatisfaction with CBS News will make the review tougher than they anticipated, and that they’ll likely need to...

Following a tumultuous year of layoffs and an ongoing merger, Paramount Television Studios is now shutting down. Today, Paramount Television Studios President Nicole Clemens announced that the division will shut down by the end of the week via a memo sent to employees, according to Deadline. The decision comes just days after Paramount announced that it would lay off 15 percent of its employees in the U.S. "This has been a challenging and transformative time for the entire industry, and sadly, our studio is not immune," she wrote. "Over the past 11 years, PTVS has weathered seemingly insurmountable obstacles through...

Warren Buffett hasn’t found a lot to like in the stock market recently.In each of the last six quarters, Buffett has sold more stocks for Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) than he bought. Last quarter, he sold off a big chunk of his Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) position and the entirety of his Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA) investment. All told, he sold nearly $20 billion worth of stocks from Berkshire’s portfolio, and he bought less than $3 billion.Buffett lamented investment opportunities for Berkshire are few and far between as the company grows bigger. With a market cap of about $877 billion, there...

As Paramount comes off a rocky week in which the company lost its CEO and its exclusive merger talks window with Skydance came to an end without a deal, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett says his company has now sold its entire stake in Paramount. Berkshire Hathaway had previously sold a third of its stock in Paramount during the fourth quarter of last year. "We sold it all, and we lost quite a bit of money, that happens in this business too," Buffett said on Saturday at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. He added that he was "100%...

The CBS News boss who signed off on the controversial ouster of Catherine Herridge — a respected Washington correspondent who has been embroiled in a high-profile First Amendment case — is nevertheless being honored with a free speech award next month. CBS News president Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews was selected by Radio Television Digital News Association to be among 13 honorees at the 33rd annual First Amendment Awards at The Watergate Hotel in Washington DC on March 9. The irony was not lost ... “The RTDNA must be tone deaf to give Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews and CBS News an award for the First...

Twenty percent ($929 billion) of the $4.7 trillion of outstanding commercial mortgages held by lenders and investors will mature in 2024, a 28 percent increase from the $729 billion that matured in 2023 ... “The lack of transactions and other activity last year, coupled with built-in extension options and lender and servicer flexibility, has meant that many loans that were set to mature in 2023 have been extended or otherwise modified and will now mature in 2024, 2026, 2028 or in other coming years,” said Jamie Woodwell, Head of Commercial Real Estate Research at MBA. “These extensions and modifications have...

The subscription video-on-demand service's staff was let go, and the app will shutter later in the year.Noggin, Paramount Global‘s subscription video-on-demand service targeted at young kids, is shutting down. The platform is a casualty of a round of layoffs that saw 800 staffers across Paramount lose their jobs. CEO Bob Bakish said the layoffs are part of “streamlining costs” at the conglomerate. Noggin’s entire staff is among the 800 layoffs. The app will stop taking on new subscribers and will shutter sometime later this year, as first reported by trade publication Kidscreen. Noggin features a library of educational games, books...

Several CBS News reporters were caught up in layoffs at Paramount Global that claimed 800 jobs, including one who is embroiled in a high-stakes First Amendment fight — and another who has reportedly weathered HR probes over his workplace behavior, The Post has learned.Catherine Herridge — an award-winning senior correspondent whose First Amendment case is being closely watched by journalists nationwide — was among the hundreds of employees at CBS parent Paramount who got pink slips on Tuesday, sources told The Post.

Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, is planning to cut hundreds of jobs just days after airing the most-watched Super Bowl in history, according to Tuesday reports. The job cuts will result in a reduction of the company’s workforce by about 3 percent, The Guardian reported, noting staff had been notified on the decision on Tuesday. “To those with whom we are parting ways, we are incredibly grateful for your hard work and dedication,” Bob Bakish, Paramount’s top executive wrote in an internal memo obtained by the outlet. “Your talents have helped us advance our mission of unleashing the...

CEO Bob Bakish announced layoffs at the media company Thursday, citing a need to “operate as a leaner company and spend less.” “Our priority is to drive earnings growth. And we’ll get there by growing our revenue while closely managing costs — a balance that will require every team, division and brand to be aligned,” Bakish said in a memo to employees.