Lulu Garcia Navarro

told my New York Times colleague that she sold the company to Ellison in part because after Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7th, she wanted to devote herself to causes around Israel.

I'm sure there were other reasons as well.

Did you ever speak to Miss Redstone about the sale and how did you feel about it?

Just to give the context here, President Trump had sued 60 Minutes over an interview of Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election.

As you mentioned, Paramount under Sherry Redstone settled the case, even though many legal experts believed that there was no merit to the suit, and they paid $16 million to the president.

Paramount denied that those two things were linked, that payment and then the deal going through.

And correct me if I'm wrong, am I hearing you say that you supported the sale to Ellison?

Had you lost confidence in the leadership of Sherry Redstone at that point?

So the deal goes through and Ellison takes over.

What assurances, if any, did you get from David Ellison and the new leadership that there wouldn't be interference at 60 Minutes?

Did you ask for those assurances?

Did you speak with David Ellison?

Ellison then hires Barry Weiss to run CBS News.

Weiss, we should say, is a former opinion writer at the New York Times who left to start her own publication after claiming bias in the Times opinion section.

I never worked with her for the record.

The free press which she launched is generally pro-Israel.

It bills itself as pushing against what it sees as the mainstream media.

What did you make of her appointment?

I mean, I'm surprised that you hadn't heard of her.

She's a lightning rod in journalism.