CBS News’s Margaret Brennan Under Fire as Watchdog Complains to FCC About Her Program’s Bias, Network Foot-Dragging

Beleaguered CBS News may be in even more hot water with the Federal Communications Commission, as it is being accused by a conservative law firm, the Center for American Rights, of failing to take action to hire an ombudsman in a timely manner, while it faces more complaints about anti-Trump and anti-MAGA bias at one of its two Sunday morning broadcasts, “Face the Nation With Margaret Brennan.”CBS News came under fire over the editing of a pre-recorded “Face the Nation” interview, which aired last Sunday, with the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, during which she discussed an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia.In the taped version of the interview — conducted by a substitute for Ms. Brennan, Ed O’Keefe — that aired on the program, CBS News producers edited out a key portion of Ms. Noem’s remarks when she made unflattering comments about Mr. Abrego Garcia. In the excised remarks, Mr. Noem said, “This individual was a known human smuggler, an MS-13 gang member, and an individual who is a wife beater, and someone who is so perverted that he solicited nude photos from minors, and even his fellow human traffickers told him to knock it off. He was so sick in what he was doing and how he was treating small children. So, he needs to never be in the United States of America, and our administration is making sure we’re doing all that we can.”CBS News posted the entire interview and transcript online. The network has defended the editing and said it was done for time purposes and “met all CBS News standards.”The CBS news personality Margaret Brennan spars with Secretary Marco Rubio on ‘Face the Nation.’ Paramount Global However, the edit reflects a consistent approach by the dominant media outlets to discussing Mr. Abrego Garcia, in which outlets such as CBS News refer to him as “a Maryland man,” a “Maryland resident,” or a “Maryland father” rather than as an illegal migrant from El Salvador who’s been accused by President Trump and his lieutenants of various crimes. The controversial edit happened at a troublesome time for the Tiffany Network, which is now under new ownership — now that the federal government approved Skydance Media’s acquisition of CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global — which has promised to address longstanding complaints of a left-wing bias and hire an ombudsman to review and evaluate such complaints.On Tuesday, the Center for American Rights sent a letter to the Trump-appointed chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, alleging that CBS News has still not appointed an ombudsman, nearly a month after the Skydance deal closed.The president of the CAR, Daniel Suhr, noted that Mr. Carr posted a message on X in April warning broadcasters that the federal government alleges Mr. Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, with the veiled threat that the FCC might pull their broadcast licenses over their coverage.Speaker Mike Johnson. CBS News“This past Sunday, CBS ‘edited for time’ its Face the Nation interview with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a way that excised the full story about Abrego Garcia’s dangerous past,” Mr. Suhr wrote. “Unfortunately, this looks like a pattern with Face the Nation, where similar editing issues have been brought up in the recent past. In October of last year, House Speaker Mike Johnson also said that Face the Nation edited his interview ‘for time’ in a way that left out key information.”In October of last year, Mr. Johnson complained after “Face the Nation With Margaret Brennan” edited out comments he made in a pre-taped interview about President Biden’s response to Hurricane Helene.The letter says that the editing concerns “fit alongside other concerns raised by Face the Nation’s consistently hostile and misleading questioning of Trump Administration cabinet officials, particularly Secretary of State Marco Rubio.”The regular host of “Face the Nation,” Ms. Brennan, has routinely come under fire from conservatives who allege she exhibits a left-wing bias in her interviews with Republican officials. Ms. Brennan fact-checked Vice President JD Vance during the 2024 vice presidential debate, despite the network previously vowing it would not engage in fact-checking, while declining to give Governor Tim Walz the same treatment. Last month, she faced criticism after Secretary Marco Rubio accused her of pushing a “stupid media narrative” for suggesting European leaders were concerned President Trump would “bully” President Volodymyr Zelensky into making a “bad deal” to end Russia’s invasion. Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, listens during a Senate hearing at Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2020. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via APMs. Brennan was also widely panned for making a bizarre comment about Nazi Germany.Her persistence as a vector of bias has puzzled some industry insiders, as “Face the Nation” is widely regarded as a second fiddle to the venerated program “CBS Sunday Morning” and may not be worth the bother.Mr. Suhr wrote to Mr. Carr, “There is a simple solution here. CBS needs to move expeditiously to fulfill its promise to appoint a real ombudsman—independent and empowered—to conduct a prompt review when an important guest with significant media experience like a cabinet secretary accuses a CBS News program of ‘shamefully’ and ‘deceptively’ editing an interview.”The Center for American Rights is notably the same organization that filed a news distortion complaint against CBS News over its editing of Vice President Kamala Harris’s October 2024 interview with “60 Minutes.” The complaint and Mr. Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit were cast by left-wing reporters and legal scholars as meritless and as attempts to hold up Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount until the companies offered a bribe to the administration. Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan have been accused of exhibiting liberal bias during the vice presidential debate. Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesIn July, shortly before the FCC approved the merger, Skydance executives met with the commission and promised to appoint an ombudsman. The commitment was memorialized in a letter sent to the FCC, which was made public. The letter also stated that Skydance is committed to ensuring that CBS News produces unbiased journalism. Mr. Carr has also said the news distortion complaint, Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, and the merger were three separate matters. After the FCC approved the deal, Mr. Carr said the commitments to clean up CBS News were the key to his agency’s approval. The deal closed in early August, and Skydance formally took control of Paramount and CBS News on August 7. It appears that the network has not yet hired an ombudsman. A columnist for the New York Post, Charles Gasparino, reported last month that CBS News is searching for someone to work “about one day a month” for a salary of $250,000 a year. Mr. Gasparino says that executives are interviewing figures from conservative media and think tanks. It is unclear whether the network has made any progress on hiring an ombudsman. CBS News did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment about the status of the ombudsman position. President Trump denounces CBS News in a conversation with Dan Bongino. RumbleThe left-wing staff at the network has a well-known practice of dragging its feet in response to directives from executives, planning, usually with ultimate success, to outlast the top brass without having to comply with mandates they disagree with. It is unclear whether the FCC will impose penalties on CBS News if it does not hire an ombudsman soon. After the Skydance deal was approved, Mr. Carr said his agency is still evaluating the CAR’s news distortion complaint. The agency can impose fines or other regulatory penalties on networks for news distortion, and the investigation could potentially be used to penalize CBS News for not acting fast enough to hire an ombudsman as complaints about bias against the network continue to add up. The FCC did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

CBS News’s Margaret Brennan Under Fire as Watchdog Complains to FCC About Her Program’s Bias, Network Foot-Dragging

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