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Jake Tapper Loses More Ground Due to His Book,
and CBS Is in Disarray As Trump Rejects a Settlement
As the ongoing court case with President Trump over the Kamala Harris pre-election interview continues, CBS and parent company Paramount Global are becoming more mired in trauma. This week, the announcement was that in their desire to end the process, and facilitate a pending corporate merger, Paramount was offering a $15 million settlement. Trump has rejected that outright.
He has called for the sum to be $25 million, but that may not be the hitch in getting an agreement, given this is holding up the merger valued at roughly $8 billion. It appears that his demand for full retraction and apology on the air has the news division — and specifically the “60 Minutes” staff — fighting significantly against that demand.
As Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson continue their pimping tour for “Original Sin,” the sales have been decent enough, if not quite at the explosive levels many anticipated. It definitely feels as if much of the book’s content has reflected poorly on Tapper in particular, depressing what were surely strong advanced sales. But more is revealed outside of the bookstores.
For the month of May, Tapper has experienced significant audience flight on his CNN scheduled shows. Through the weekend of May 25, Tapper has seen his ratings dip sharply, at a time when he has been a perpetual presence both on his own network and across the news spectrum. Last month, he saw his audience numbers slide, from an already lowly number, by 25%, the amount of the advertising demographic dropped by 15%, as he he drew barely 10% of the cable news audience.
His average of near 425,000 for the month was the lowest he has experienced in a decade.
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