And there’s also all the influence of financial interests and mergers and terrorist lawsuits to make everything even worse. Trump punishes journalism for reporting the truth about him, and much of journalism says “Yes sir yes sir” because it doesn’t want to lose that sweet deal it has with _____.

CBS News and Stations CEO Wendy McMahon is leaving the network, the latest casualty as its parent company tries to broker a truce with Donald Trump.

McMahon alluded to the network’s battles with the president in a memo to staff on Monday, less than 24 hours after 60 Minutes aired its season finale, and admitted “the past few months have been challenging.”

Her exit comes as CBS’ parent company Paramount Global negotiates a settlement to Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against the network over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. Controlling shareholder Shari Redstone is hoping for a quick settlement so as to not provide a roadblock to Paramount’s merger with Skydance.

Lawyers for Trump and Paramount entered into settlement talks last month.

It’s just blatant hijacking. Trump sues and everybody dives for cover.

The news rankled staff on Monday, with some pinning the departure on CBS CEO George Cheeks for letting top leaders leave to appease the parent company. “I think people are very disappointed” in Cheeks, one CBS staffer told the Daily Beast. “He is letting some truly amazing people walk out the door.”

Because Trump. And money.

Trump sued the network, initially for $10 billion last year, after CBS promoted a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris in October that included a clip on Face the Nation that featured one part of an answer on Israel’s war in Gaza. But when the episode aired the next day as part of a special edition of 60 Minutes—one Trump refused to participate in—it featured a different part of the answer.

Trump claimed the network engaged in a form of news distortion, though CBS News said its interview followed standard journalistic practice and defended its interview on First Amendment grounds. Trump upped the lawsuit to $20 billion earlier this year. Incidentally, the Harris interview was subsequently nominated for an Emmy Award in the Best Editing category.

Still, despite legal experts’ opinions that the lawsuit is flawed, Paramount Global entered into settlement talks with Trump’s legal team last month as controlling shareholder Shari Redstone seeks to merge the company with David Ellison’s Skydance, which would net her a $2.4 billion payout for her family’s share.

Redstone’s aggressive pursuit of securing the Trump administration’s blessing included demanding Cheeks notify her about negative Trump stories last month, according to Bloomberg.

It came after Trump rebuked 60 Minutes over an episode that covered his pursuit to take Greenland and featured an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 60 Minutes never amended any of its programs, and it aired a story last month that examined Trump’s attacks on law firms.

CBS staffers have chastised Redstone both publicly and privately.

Bill Owens, 60 Minutes’ executive producer, told staff in his exit announcement he lost his ability “to make independent decisions” on the show’s programming after he refused to apologize for the Harris interview.

He praised McMahon for her leadership, and she said in her memo on his departure that it was “an easy decision” to stand by Owens despite company pressures.

So Trump is the boss of 60 Minutes now. Brilliant.