The Trish Regan Show - 60 Minutes’ Anchors REVOLT as CBS Caves to Trump in $20B Showdown!

Episode Date: June 20, 2025

CBS CAVES TO TRUMP! CBS is scrambling to settle Trump’s $20B lawsuit, but a full-blown revolt from “60 Minutes” anchors—and warnings of political bribery—could blow the deal apart. This is a CLIP from the LIVE Trish Regan Show episode 148 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sherry Redstone is trying to get a deal done with Skydance. And it is believed, and this is not really fair, right, but it's believed that if they can't actually resolve things with Donald Trump, vis-a-vis 60 minutes and the lawsuit he leveled against them, then they're not going to get to first base in terms of FCC approval for the deal. But simultaneously, you see, there's a catch here. If they do settle for a lot of money, the FCC can come back, just as they did to Disney and Bob Eiger.

ABC and say, hey, you know, nobody really trusts you. So what are you doing in the news business anyway? And look, here's proof. You just settled Georgie Porgy's thing, Stephanopoulos, on the weekend for 16 million bucks, right? So now if they settle this for 35 or it's reported even $50 million, can the FCC then say, hey, you know, forget it. We're not going to really renew any of these affiliations all around the country with your CBS affiliates because it is clear your news division is so freaking messed up that you had to settle this massive thing. So it's like, damned if you do, damned if you don't. And you got this heiress there, Sherry, who's like, for goodness sakes,

can we just sell this thing and move on with it? Because she's got some big tax bills, apparently in the hundreds of millions of dollars coming up on the Redstone estate. She needs to get moving with this thing, not to mention. Like the company's basically done, right? Like unless they find a way to innovate, unless they find a way to move forward. Here's a picture of Sherry Redstone. The Trump people appear to be willing to settle for less, but even that amount worries the paramount people.

This is the reported $35 million that might be the amount of money that is agreed to for that CBS Trump suit. Now, this is a story in the New York Post today by my friend Charlie Gasparino, great reporter, and he's basically got some sources saying, look, you know, Trump is holding up for the $50 million. Maybe they could get to the $35 million, but you get a problem. here because people are saying, well, could that actually open her to bribery allegations? The Democrats are actually threatening that, you guys. They're saying, okay, if CBS makes this settlement, is it actually this mergers is going to come back to haunt them? Because they know that she stands to make a lot of money, $2 billion actually. She's recused herself officially for many of

these negotiations, even though it's kind of obvious she wants it to go through. And so now they're in this kind of just no man's zone, right? No man's land. They got the whole mutiny going on at CBS where the executive producer decides to resign and then his talent, what's his name, Scotty Pelly there, goes on air and says, ah, you know, it's all better. And now, and now Leslie Stahl's also sounding the alarm. Another longtime stalwart of the 60-minute stable. You can't make it up. This is a disaster for Paramount. It's a disaster for CBS. It's a disaster for the entire news division for 60 minutes. And it all goes back to this moment in time. You know it. I know it. The president of the United States and his lawyers know it. Watch. But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not

listening. Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening. We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end. Ooh, okay. Well, it was like magic, right? That's what you call a good editor.

I mean, you got to give them some props. Whoever edited that one, the guy's like a magician, because he took Kamala Harris's word salad and actually turned it into something rather coherent. I mean, credit were credits, too. Just saying, just saying, anyway. So because of all of this,

and because of a few other things along the way, CVS News is in a very, very tough spot. And Sherry Redstone needs to get this deal done. She's damned if she does. She's damned if she doesn't. What happens to the company? I'll tell you, I would not be investing in it right now. I'm not sure that the deal gets done.

And even if it does, I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, they're threatening. The Democrats are threatening to open up these bribery allegations. I mean, it's perfect for them, right? Because then they're going to say, oh, you know, Trump got $35 or $50 million, whatever it turns out to be, all because maybe he would say okay with the FCC's approval of the deal. So in some ways, you know, if you're Trump, you're like, you're sitting there telling, hey, hey, Brandon, Brennan Carr, head of the SEC, maybe give that extra super duper scrutiny.

And then coupled with the fact that, hey, Brandon can say, gee, you guys aren't a very good news division because you had to pay the 35 or 50 million bucks, you have a bit of a mess, a good old-fashioned mess and one that Leslie Stahl, one of the 60 Minutes reporters, is speaking out about all as the auto-pen hearings go on right now on Capitol Hill. We're going to get to that in a moment. But first, Leslie Stahl, taken on Sherry Redstone. This was interesting. I mean, the inmates really run in the asylum, because when you're going to sound off about your boss over and over again, I think at some point your boss is going to say, gee, this isn't really working for us, right? You had the head of C.B. Wendy McMahon, and then you had Bill Owens, the EP at 16 minutes.

you had Scott Pelly knocking them all on the air. And now 60 Minutes reporter Leslie Stahl says she's angry with Sherry Redstone. Very angry. Kind of furious because somehow her First Amendment rights are being threatened. And she does not know if basically you can ever have a news division that's for profit again. Here we go. Here's the quote. She spoke to the New York Times, I guess, in this particular, forgive me.

Is this a New York Times? Yeah, I think she was talking to them in a podcast. Quote, to have a news organization come under corporate pressure, to have a news organization told by a corporation, do this, do that with your story, change this, change that, don't run that piece. I mean, it steps on the First Amendment. It steps on the freedom of the press. Stahl said, quote, it steps on what we stand for. It makes me question whether any corporation should own a news operation. It's very disconcerning.

Very disconcerning. But, you know, I'll tell you what was disconcerning. The fact that she was never actually willing to follow up on all those tips about the Hunter Biden laptop and sat there with a straight face trying to tell one Donald Trump that he was completely misguided and completely wrong because there was no way that that was anything other than misinformation, right? Fed to you. Spoonfed, courtesy of Rudy Giuliani and the Russians. Remember? Watch.

And you think it's the biggest issue to campaign on? I think it's one of the biggest scandals I've ever seen. and you don't cover it. You want to talk about... Well, because it can't be verified. You want to talk about insignificant things. I'm telling you. Of course it can be verified.

Excuse me, they found a laptop. Leslie. Leslie. Can't be verified. The laptop. Why do you say that? Even the family hasn't, the family on the laptop. Can't be verified.

Can't be verified. He's like, what the heck are you talking about? For five days, he's got into hiding. He's preparing for your debate. Oh, it's taken him five days to prepare. I doubt it. I doubt it. Okay. All right. So let's get back to the name, Paul.

Let's get back. Let's get back to business. Anyway, that was quite a moment. And I would just say this. You know what? That's bogus. I mean, look, I used to work there. Funny. We're talking about Walmart. I can remember once calling Walmart in my CBS evening news

piece a dollar store. Because on Wall Street, that's what analysts refer to Walmart as. It's a dollar store. You just call them dollar stores. And it's one big bracket, right? And you'd put Target in there and Walmart and the dollar store is in there. And it's because they're sort of discount stores. And I got a call from management saying, oh my gosh, did you just refer to Walmart as a dollar store? You know, they are our biggest sponsor. Indeed, they had a big sponsorship at the time. And I'm like, yeah, that's what they're called.

That's like, you know, look, I came from a Wall Street background. That's what analysts called them, all right? And they were like, oh my gosh, and they were so terrified that Walmart was going to call and be all upset. So I would just say that, you know, as much as Leslie wants to pretend, like management never, ever cares, that's not entirely true. Okay, again, don't bite the hand that feed you. I think that that exists within news organizations is one of the reasons why we're so happy to be over here, right? Because we don't have to deal with that, you know what, anymore. But she's dealt with it. Come on. You know, she's a big girl. I'm sure she has had her share of run-ins before. But maybe it just never got to this level. It never got to the point where you had to

have the president of the news division, the head of the 60 Minutes show, resign. You've never had that happen before. And now Sherry Redstone is like, because you know what she has to, wants to save her company. And it's not clear that she's going to be able to, again, because she's damned if she does, and she's damned if she doesn't. So I would just say this entire deal right now is very much in which means the future of 60 minutes and CBS News is in jeopardy because I'm not sure that financially they're going to make it. The other thing I'd point out is even if it does happen, they still may not make it because they're talking about doing a total redo of 60 minutes if this deal closes. Larry Allison's son, who owns Skydance, is working with a company called, interestingly,

Redbird Partners. And they're talking about bringing in a former NBC guy, Jeff Schallel, I believe, to run and rehabilitate the news division at CBS. Okay, here we go. It's actually, this was in New York Post, I believe. So they're going to face this redo. So Skydance is continuing to drop plans for massive restructuring and the media properties, including CBS, once considered the crown jewel of the Redstone Empire

for its top-rated shows, sports, and influential news programming, such as 60 Minutes. And this would actually be really kind of funny. because Redbird Capital, which is being brought in to run the news division by Skydance is run and operated by none other than one. You see who I'm looking at? You see who I'm looking at? I mean, he knows a thing or two about the news business.

He really does not like Donald Trump. One, Jeff Zucker. So this news division is totally damned if it does. damned if you. I mean, there is like no way out. Okay. If they do the deal and they settle for $35 or $50 million, paramount with Donald Trump for the library or whatever, and maybe they'll throw in some public service announcements they announced too with that. If they do that deal, well then the FCC can come back and say, gee, we're not going to allow for affiliations, all these affiliates. Why are they paying you all these fees? Because your programming is

garbage and you know how we know it's garbage. We got the proof. You just had to settle. this deal because you tried to influence a presidential election. They have that on record. So that's a big problem. The flip side is the Democrats are threatening these bribery charges. So they're going to say, well, Sherry Redstone, the only reason you guys did this and the board is terrified they're going to get sued is because you wanted to get this deal done. Now, if they don't get the deal done, they're going to continue to wallow in nothingness. Okay? So they're not going to have any money. They're not going to have any capital. The place is, you know, kaput. And then, again, if they get the deal done, you got Jeff Zucker run in the news division with Redbird Capital and the other NBC guys.

So I don't think that's going to go, well, you have only to look at CNN. Hey, maybe he's planning some big revamp that we just haven't thought of yet. But again, I think the action is over here. Is it not? Make sure you subscribe, share, like. Oh, we're top 100 again. What do you know? It's very exciting here on YouTube, just little old us, right?

So the medium is changing. And I do think if Jeff gets in there, he's probably going to make a decision that he's not going to pay the big salaries of Leslie Stoller, Scott Pellier, or any of these people. 60 minutes in and in of itself is a worthwhile brand. CBS is a brand, but you're going to have to rehabilitate big time, okay? Because this company is facing a heck of a lot of trouble.