Lesley Stahl Accepts First Amendment Award Amid Attacks On ‘60 Minutes’: “We Are Standing And Fighting For What Is Right”

deadline.com:

60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, among those accepting press freedom awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association tonight, told attendees that it was especially significant “because it comes now, when our precious First Amendment feels vulnerable and when my precious 60 Minutes is fighting, quite frankly, for our life.” “I am so proud at 60 Minutes that we are standing and fighting for what is right,” Stahl said.

Either directly or indirectly, Stahl and a number of the honorees at the D.C. event talked of the Trump administration’s attacks on the news media, including efforts to dictate who is a member of the White House press pool and by the president’s references to the press as the “enemy of the people.” Stahl did get into the details of what is happening at 60 Minutes: Trump sued the network for $20 billion, claiming that they deceptively edited an interview with Kamala Harris for an election special in October.

The FCC also has launched an inquiry, with CBS turning over an unedited transcript of the interview in response to an agency demand.

What has been disconcerting to CBS News staffers is the prospect that parent Paramount Global will settle Trump’s lawsuit, even though many legal observers say is frivolous.