AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

Earlier this month, the parent company of CBS agreed to pay $16 million to settle a $20 billion lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump, who objected to the way CBS News’s 60 Minutes edited an interview with his opponent, Kamala Harris. Paramount board chair and controlling shareholder Shari Redstone reportedly sought the settlement to ensure the FCC approves Paramount’s $8.4 billion bid to merge with Skydance Media. In April, 60 Minutes’ longtime executive producer Bill Owens resigned amidst disagreements over how to respond to the lawsuit, saying he had “lost the independence that honest journalism requires,” unquote. In May, CBS News president, CEO Wendy McMahon announced she would also step down, saying in a parting memo, “The company and I do not agree on the path forward,” unquote.

Last week, Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show, skewered the settlement in his monologue.

STEPHEN COLBERT: Unlike the payoffs from ABC and Twitter, Paramount’s settlement did not include an apology.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes!

STEPHEN COLBERT: Instead — that’s good. Instead, the corporation released a statement where they said, “You may take our money, but you will never take our dignity. You may, however, purchase our dignity for the low, low price of $16 million. We need the cash.”

Now, I believe — what can I say? What can I say? Mr. Stephen loves to dance. Now, I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. It’s “big fat bribe,” because this all comes as Paramount’s owners are trying to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our network to a new owner, Skydance.

AMY GOODMAN: That was last week. Just days later, there was another announcement. This is Stephen Colbert again.

STEPHEN COLBERT: Before we start the show, I want to let you know something that I found out just last night. Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending The Late Show in May. And —

AUDIENCE: No! [booing]

STEPHEN COLBERT: Yeah, I share your feelings. It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.

AMY GOODMAN: “All just going away.” In its statement on the cancellation, CBS said the cancellation was, quote, “purely a financial decision,” unquote — a claim that’s been met with widespread skepticism. Fellow late-night comedian Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, which is also owned by CBS/Paramount, acknowledged financial challenges in late-night TV but still questioned the decision.

JON STEWART: The fact that CBS didn’t try to save their number-one-rated network late-night franchise, that’s been on the air for over three decades, is part of what’s making everybody wonder: Was this purely financial? Or maybe the path of least resistance for your $8 billion merger?

AMY GOODMAN: Jon Stewart has also said he thinks that his show, The Daily Show, will be sold for spare parts.

For more, we’re joined by Jeff Cohen, co-founder of the online action group RootsAction.org. He’s also the founder of the media watch group FAIR.

Thanks, Jeff, for joining us. In these last few minutes that we have, you had already predicted this. You said, “When I predicted the demise of Colbert or The Daily Show, another Paramount property, it sounded paranoid. Now it’s a reality.” Talk about what’s unfolded. There were already protests outside The Late Show on Monday night.

JEFF COHEN: And there’s online petitions against Paramount.

The reason I predicted this is because so many media conglomerates had already given thinly disguised bribes to Trump to settle lawsuits they could not possibly lose in court. Disney did it over a defamation suit against ABC News. Meta and Mark Zuckerberg did it. But the negotiations between CBS and — by the way, the suit against 60 Minutes for the editing of the Kamala Harris, that’s even more laughable than all the other suits. It couldn’t possibly win in court. And the negotiations stretched out. And that’s when I realized that the Trump side was holding out for something more than just money. They were holding out for all sorts of promises.

And one of them was fulfilled when the Colbert show — the announced termination of it as of May of next year. It’s very likely Jon Stewart and The Daily Show and other Paramount property will go. And what’s fascinating is that Trump is claiming — and I saw a big write-up of it in the New York Post — Trump is claiming, besides the $16 million bribe, as Colbert described it, from Paramount to Trump, there’s also a side deal of $15 to $20 million that Skydance, which will be the head — it’ll be Skydance-Paramount very shortly, after the Trump administration approves the merger — that Skydance, on all of its platforms, Skydance-Paramount, will be offering $15 to $20 million in PSAs, public service announcements, on behalf of Trump’s causes. That’s really scary. So, there’s no doubt that there are side deals besides the $16 million, and Colbert’s head was perhaps only the first thing. CBS News will be under the gun. We know this. The head of Skydance is a guy named David Ellison. He’s the son of Larry Ellison, the billionaire who’s so close to Trump. And they don’t want —

AMY GOODMAN: Daniel [sic] Ellison.

JEFF COHEN: — anything on CBS News in the future that will offend our dictator-in-chief, Donald Trump. So, things could get even crazier as we go on. Why? Because over a period of several decades, both Democratic and Republican administrations have placed our media and information system in the hands of giant media conglomerates who have only one value. It’s not freedom of press. It’s not free flow of information. It’s profit maximization. That’s why you’re seeing all this complicity between the media owners and the Trump team.

AMY GOODMAN: So, let me ask you — yeah, David Ellison, the son of the billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, CEO of Skydance. The Freedom of the Press Foundation has said it plans to file a shareholder lawsuit against Shari Redstone, who, of course, is the daughter of Sumner Redstone, the founder, and the Paramount board over the settlement. What’s the significance of this?

JEFF COHEN: I think there’s going to be a lot of legal action. I’m not optimistic, but there will be legal action, shareholder suits. Remember, Shari Redstone, the boss of Paramount, when the merger is approved by the Trump administration, as everyone expects it to be shortly approved, she will be $2 billion wealthier than she is today.

So, this is the problem in what’s happening in our society, is corporate universities, as your first segment, they’ve been complicit with the Trump team. Corporate law firms have been complicit, made all these deals, saying they’re going to do pro bono work of millions of dollars for Trump. You can’t do pro bono work for Trump. Pro bono work means you’re representing nonprofits or individuals who cannot afford attorneys. And now you have the media conglomerates who are complicit with Trump. So, it’s a very dangerous situation.

And it started decades ago. And FAIR was critical when Bill Clinton and the right-wing speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, behind closed doors, written by media lobbyists, did the Telecommunications Act, which allowed big media companies to get even bigger.

AMY GOODMAN: We have 15 seconds, Jeff.

JEFF COHEN: And that’s the problem we have. Pardon?

AMY GOODMAN: Jeff, thank you so much for being with us. This is an issue we will, to say the least, continue to follow. Do you have another prediction? Since you certainly got this one right.

JEFF COHEN: Yeah, I’m sad that I believe that Jon Stewart’s in trouble. And, you know, Jimmy Kimmel, his employer is Disney. He could be in trouble. You learn more from a 10-minute monologue from these comedians than you do from a month of watching the news on those channels.

AMY GOODMAN: Jeff Cohen, thanks so much for being with us, co-founder of the action group RootsAction.org and co-founder of FAIR. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.