CBS Gave US ALL the Middle Finger…MEIDAS RESPONDS!! MeidasTouch Network and Ben Meiselas May 20 By Ben Meiselas I had a great birthday yesterday, but now I am taking the gloves off. I am pissed off!! It appears that CBS and its parent company Paramount are moving closer to settling a BS lawsuit filed by Donald Trump—to pay Trump directly as a quid pro quo for the U.S. government approving the merger between Paramount and a company called Skydance. The merger would put approximately $5 billion in cash into the hands of Paramount shareholders, including its controlling shareholder Shari Redstone. Shari Redstone inherited Paramount—once called Viacom—from her dad, Sumner Redstone. Shari wants to sell her shares to Skydance so she can make billions. The merger requires approval by various United States government agencies, like the FCC. Trump’s FCC has threatened to withhold approval of the merger. Trump personally sued Paramount and CBS (which owns 60 Minutes) in Texas federal court, forum-shopping to get a Trump-appointed judge. He claims he was injured under Texas consumer laws because 60 Minutes lightly edited its interview with former VP Kamala Harris in October 2024. Trump was too scared to sit for an interview with 60 Minutes in this election cycle. Yet he claims he was injured to the tune of $20 billion based on how CBS presented its interview with Kamala Harris. In my opinion, it’s the dumbest and most frivolous lawsuit imaginable. In normal times, a lawsuit like this would be met with massive sanctions for vexatious litigation. But in the age of Trump, it’s now a shakedown tool—to demand personal settlements to enrich himself and use the levers of government approval processes to effectuate the shakedown. Yesterday, Wendy McMahon, the president and head of CBS News, resigned in protest because CBS’s corporate owners at Paramount want to cave to Trump. This follows Bill Owens, the head producer of 60 Minutes, resigning in protest a few weeks back for the same reason. There was a mediation held a few weeks back between Trump and Paramount to settle Trump’s BS lawsuit. My sources tell me a mediator proposal was made to settle the case. I hear Paramount desperately wants to accept the proposal and settle with Trump to complete their merger with Skydance—but their big hurdle was people like Owens, and especially McMahon, who rightfully view any settlement with Trump as the death of CBS News. I’ve seen various reports over the past 24 hours that confirm what I’ve heard: that the settlement range is between $30–50 million that Paramount is willing to pay Trump directly to clear the path for their $5 billion merger. This is so utterly pathetic and fascistic! First, I want to say I applaud the decisions of Bill Owens and Wendy McMahon for resigning in protest. While I doubt I could offer the same salaries you got at CBS, we’d love to discuss roles for you at the MeidasTouch Network. We are a subscriber-funded network from this Substack, and we don’t get our orders from anyone—especially not right-wing oligarchs. Have your people call my people. In other words, Bill and Wendy, email me. We are the most viewed independent media network in the world, and far more people watch us than CBS on digital platforms anyway. Second, as I reflect on what CBS is doing, I guess they are just making more MeidasTouch viewers. Whether it’s CBS and Paramount caving and kissing the ring, or other corporate news doing defamatory and despicable coverage of Biden while covering up for Trump, corporate news’s decline is MeidasTouch Network’s gain. Our original, independent, fearless reporting is the future of news. These oligarch-funded Trump enablers are writing their own obituaries by chasing Trump down the depths of depravity and lies. Third, even if the MeidasTouch Network benefits from the failures of corporate news like CBS, it doesn’t mean I root for their failure. I loved 60 Minutes under the leadership of Bill Owens and Wendy McMahon. There are still some good newscasters who shouldn’t be lumped in with the capitulating class—people who are fighting for their editorial independence each day and still doing good work, albeit in hostile work environments. I respect the craft of good journalism. I don’t like seeing CBS cave to Trump. I don’t like seeing their corporate overlords destroy the legacy of newsrooms that once did good reporting. But fourth, and finally, I go back to the MeidasTouch Network’s vision. We are independent. We are not beholden to right-wing oligarchs. Our only stakeholders are you—the MeidasMighty, the subscribers to this Substack. That’s why your subscriptions to this Substack are so incredibly valuable. It not only gives you access to content—it empowers the MeidasTouch Network to exist, thrive, and build a newsroom that fights fascism fearlessly and without the slightest hesitation. It’s why I always say: we need you to subscribe now to this Substack if you can. So when CBS and Paramount give us the middle finger, we give them our data. And our data shows that we are kicking their ass in digital views and downloads—and it’s not even close. I want to be able to expand MeidasTouch to one day acquire a show like 60 Minutes. I know we can do it. I know that we have laid the foundation to truly revolutionize the media, and build something that will be a force for good. I’ll leave you with this anecdote: Our coverage of the Romanian election this weekend was a major story within Romania. A headline from a popular Romanian website described how America’s top podcast and news network (the MeidasTouch Network) devoted attention to the victory by pro-democracy forces in the Romanian election, as the Trump-aligned candidate got upset. Whether it’s here in the USA, or in Canada, Australia, Romania, Poland, India—wherever—the MeidasTouch Network is bringing people together to support democracy and normalcy, and fight back against fascism around the world. And this is all happening at the same time American corporate news is consolidating under a corrosive state regime banner. I am not afraid of being arrested by Trump. Not to get morbid, but I am not afraid of being killed by Trump or his minions. I don’t fear this regime. I know my mission and my purpose, and I am laser-focused on that. I am putting it all out there. I will not look back and say I could have done this or that. But I can’t do it alone. We need your help. It’s now or never. Now’s the moment. Share this network with everyone now. Tell them about the MeidasTouch Network. Send them our live podcast from last night. Let me know in the comments how many people you referred to the MeidasTouch Network. In fact, let’s make it a competition and see who told the most people to watch our show from last night. Let me know in the comments. And finally—subscribe now to this Substack or gift subscriptions to people you know. We can send a powerful message to CBS and other cable news by growing this Substack bigger than anyone expects. Hit subscribe now. Thanks for subscribing—and thanks for spreading the word. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.