Clooney: ABC, CBS should have told Trump “go f**k yourself”

Actor George Clooney thinks television news networks did a disservice to the country when they caved to lawsuits from President Donald Trump.

The movie star and Democratic Party donor has never been afraid to weigh in on political discussions. He famously joined the pressure campaign to force former President Joe Biden to end his 2024 presidential campaign. (He has since said that he regretted that decision.)

Speaking to Variety, he said that recent settlements with the president from ABC and CBS‘ news divisions have set the nation and its press on a bad path.

Trump sued ABC for defamation after anchor George Stephanopoulos said the president had been found “liable for rape” in lawsuits brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump had been found liable of sexual abuse, but not rape. Though the judge in that case later found that bit of daylight to be a distinction without a difference, ABC caved and paid Trump $15 million.

Trump sued CBS for election interference, claiming that editing choices made in a “60 Minutes” interview of former Vice President Kamala Harris were “partisan.” Though CBS shared the transcripts and unedited footage of their interview, the network’s parent company, Paramount, decided to settle. Paramount was in the midst of a merger with media company Skydance, a deal that needed the Trump administration’s approval.

Clooney noted that CBS and ABC’s decision to obey in advance did them few favors. The president still rails against the network’s most prominent hosts even as CBS News is pushing for more MAGA-friendly coverage under the watchful eye of newly installed editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. Clooney, who directed a movie about famed CBS anchor Edward R. Murrow, seemed disgusted by the turn.

“Weiss is dismantling CBS News as we speak. I’m worried about how we inform ourselves and how we’re going to discern reality without a functioning press,” he said. “If CBS and ABC had challenged those lawsuits and said, ‘Go f**k yourself,’ we wouldn’t be where we are in the country.”

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Elsewhere in the interview, Clooney reflected on his former friendship with Trump. He said that Trump’s personality has shifted in the years since he first encountered him in A-list circles.

“I knew him very well,” Clooney said. “He used to call me a lot… I’d see him out at clubs and at restaurants. He’s a big goofball. Well, he was. That all changed.”