Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, strongly supports settling with Trump, according to a New York Times report. The move could upset some journalists at the network who have voiced concerns about the idea of their parent company settling litigation they consider equivalent to a politician’s typical problems with the media’s news judgment.

It is unclear what the terms of any such deal might include and if a deal will actually be reached. Trump sued the network over accusations they deceptively edited a segment featuring Harris.

At the time Trump sued the network, media experts dismissed the case as a last-ditch effort to sue a network Trump and his allies do not like, but now that Trump is back in the White House, he has far more power over the network’s future. 

Even if the lawsuit has no merit, the Trump administration could toy with CBS News’ broadcast license, as the president said in a Truth Social post before the election that “CBS SHOULD LOSE ITS LICENSE.” Because Paramount owns broadcasting licenses, the FCC has the ultimate say over the transaction because it would involve the transfer of broadcast TV licenses held by local CBS-owned stations. 

Television networks and radio stations receive broadcast licenses from the FCC, and they then have the discretion to edit programs and schedule them as they please. However the FCC has enforcement powers in certain situations, but these issues generally arise in the context of obscene, indecent, or profane material, according to legal analysts.

Paramount and SkyDance Media are additionally trying to merge to create “New Paramount,” in a deal valued at $8 billion. Skydance is currently run by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who has a good relationship with Trump.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Skydance said David Ellison would support measures to promote unbiased journalism, which would appease the Trump administration in the merger’s future and could be part of the reason Redstone wishes to settle.

In terms of the lawsuit, Paramount reportedly expects Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick to run the FCC, to request that CBS News provide the agency with an unedited copy of 60 Minutes’ interview with Harris. CBS had previously not handed over the transcript when Trump’s lawyers requested it.

During the segment in question, CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker asked Harris a question about the Israel-Hamas war. In a preview of the program’s interview with Harris on “Face the Nation,” CBS aired a more succinct version of what she said than the full answer she provided in the full 60 Minutes installment.

“Former President Donald Trump’s repeated claims against 60 Minutes are false,” CBS News said in a statement. “The interview was not doctored; and 60 Minutes did not hide any part of Vice President Kamala Harris’s answer to the question at issue.”

Still, Edward Paltzik, Trump’s lawyer on the case, told the New York Times that “Real accountability for CBS and Paramount will ensure that the president is compensated for the harm done to him.”

Trump was additionally set to appear on the program during the campaign, as all presidential candidates have appeared for decades, but his campaign backed out after learning there would be a fact-checking element of his appearance.

“A week ago, Trump backed out. The campaign offered shifting explanations. First, it complained that we would fact-check the interview. We fact-check every story,” CBS News’s Scott Pelley said on the matter. “Later, Trump said he needed an apology for his interview in 2020.”

If the settlement occurs, it would be the second lawsuit Trump has settled with a major network since winning the election. ABC News paid $15 million to settle Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the network and its anchor George Stephanopoulos, who had said Trump had been found “liable for rape” in a civil trial when the president had been found liable for sexual abuse.