Reports the Wall Street Journal A mediator is proposing $20 million in compensation to resolve the conflict between Donald Trump and the television network CBS. The dispute is sparked by an election-period interview with Kamala Harris: the US president is accusing them of interfering in the elections for having edited the Democratic candidate's response to make her sound less hesitant on the issue of the Israeli conflict. From a professional standpoint, it's an absurd argument: the network has the prerogative to organize a conversation as it sees fit to capture the interviewee's position more effectively. In the preview before the broadcast, Harris appeared hesitant, and this has news value, but it's also possible to reverse the situation so that viewers can better understand her position on a sensitive issue. It's called freedom of the press.
$20 million in compensation may seem like an outrage, but it's worth remembering that Trump, in his constant headlong rush, was asking for $20 billion. And if he has every chance of winning this fight—even if it's just 0.1% of his initial claim—it's because he has an ace up his sleeve: CBS is in the process of a business merger that must be approved by the FCC, a competition agency chaired by a Trump loyalist. Disney had to pay $15 million because a host said the president was found guilty of rape when he was actually guilty of sexual assault. Disproportionate or not, the sentence was at least due to a blatant error. We're talking about something else here: covert extortion, laying a regulatory body at your feet to bend a media outlet's editorial line and humiliate it. We're talking about uninhibited gangsterism.
