CBS News is denying deceitfully editing Vice President Harris’s interview with “60 Minutes” while admitting to selectively editing the segment, including choosing part of her longer answer to a question about Israel so she would make a “more succinct” answer. CBS News has been mired in controversy after it was caught releasing three different clips of Ms. Harris’s interview to replace her “word salad” answer. In each video, she gives a different answer to the same question from journalist Bill Whitaker. In a rare statement, “60 Minutes” said, “Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false.”“60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point,” the statement continued. “The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide-ranging 21-minute-long segment.”CBS News has been denounced by President Trump for its editing of the ’60 Minutes’ Kamala Harris interview. CBS NewsIn a closing shot, CBS News said, “Remember, Mr. Trump pulled out of his interview with 60 Minutes and the vice president participated.” However, it did not release a transcript of the interview, which would let viewers see Ms. Harris’s complete answer. CBS News’s critics have been calling on the network to release the full transcript, as it does on a case-by-case basis. The “60 Minutes” statement did not address the transcript issue.A spokeswoman for President Trump’s campaign, Karoline Leavitt, said CBS News “just admitted to doing exactly what President Trump accused them of doing.”“They edited in a different response — from another part of her answer — to make Kamala Harris sound less incoherent than she really was. Their statement is not a denial. It is an admission that they did exactly what they were accused of. This is another reminder of how hopelessly biased 60 Minutes is, and how correct President Trump was to decline their invitation to be subjected to their fake news hackery,” she added. Trump has called the edits to the interview the “worst scandal” in “broadcast history.” In a Friday interview with radio host Dan Bongino, he said, “They didn’t edit. They took her entire…paragraph…and it was a long, they say, word salad,”Speaker Mike Johnson appears on CBS News ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday. CBS News“It was just words, rambling words, horrible. So they take it out, and they put another statement that she made two pages later, they insert it. And nobody would’ve known the difference, and they got caught,” he added. Trump said he might sue the network for “election interference” and that “60 Minutes” should be “taken off the air.” He also previously said that CBS News should lose its broadcast license, which lets it broadcast “over the air.” However, the chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, Jessica Rosenworcel, a Biden appointee and former Democratic congressional staffer, denounced Trump for his “threats against free speech” and said the commission would not act. CBS News was called out for its editing of the Harris interview after it clumsily released three videos showing her answering the same question with three different answers. In a preview excerpt of the interview that aired on October 6 on “Face the Nation,” the vice president was asked why Prime Minister Netanyahu does not seem to be listening to American officials’ advice and concerns about how Israel carries out its war against Hamas.Margaret Brennan (R) and Norah O’Donnell (L) have been accused of exhibiting liberal bias during the vice presidential debate. Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesShe answered with what critics call a “word salad,” saying, “The work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.”However, in the primetime broadcast of “60 Minutes” that aired the next evening, when she was asked the same question about Mr. Netanyahu, the “word salad” was gone. Ms. Harris responded to the same Israel question more coherently, saying, “We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”A third edit also surfaced, posted by the “Face the Nation” X handle, which included yet another answer from Ms. Harris, with a portion that did not air on TV. In the third version, the vice president spoke about America’s efforts to help Israel defend itself from attacks from Iran. She said it is America’s “imperative to do what we can to allow Israel to defend itself against those types of attacks.”CBS News’s refusal to release the full transcript of the interview has led to a complaint being filed against it with the FCC.CBS Mornings’ Tony Dokoupil interviews Ta-Nehisi Coates. CBS NewsThe Center for American Rights alleged in its filing with the FCC that CBS News engaged in “significant and intentional news distortion” by changing Ms. Harris’ interview.The CAR’s complaint acknowledges that this “kind of editing is normal in the context of a news magazine style show” like “60 Minutes.” However, it says, “CBS crosses a line when its production reaches the point of so transforming an interviewee’s answer that it is a fundamentally different answer.”Rather than seeking to censor CBS News or strip it of its broadcast license, CAR’s complaint asks that the FCC force it to release the transcript of its interview with Ms. Harris.While Ms. Rosenworcel dismissed Trump’s complaint, FCC commissioner Nathan Simington told Fox News Digital he does not think CAR’s complaint is “facially ridiculous.” Mr. Simington, a Trump appointee, also said it would not be “inappropriate for the commission to take it up” as it has a history of acting on news distortion complaints.President Trump denounces CBS News in a conversation with Dan Bongino. RumbleBesides the edits to Ms. Harris’ interview, CBS News has also faced criticism from House Speaker Johnson, who accused “Face the Nation” of selectively editing his October 13 interview with co-host Margaret Brennan to “undermine Republicans.”Mr. Johnson said CBS removed comments he made about the Biden Administration’s hurricane response and election security. Unlike with the “60 Minutes” interview with Ms. Harris, “Face the Nation” published the entire Johnson transcript online. Mr. Johnson has publicly called on CBS News to release the full transcript of the Harris interview.Ms. Brennan is also under fire for exhibiting liberal bias while co-hosting the vice presidential debate, during which she “fact checked” Senator Vance although CBS News had said that it would not engage in “fact checking.”Wendy McMahon. CEO of CBS News. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, FileThe network has also come under fire for how it handled internal complaints about morning show host Tony Dokoupil’s interview with anti-Israel author Ta-Nehisi Coates. In what was supposed to be a confidential all-staff meeting on the anniversary of the October 7 attack, the inexperienced leadership team of CBS News said the interview did not meet the network’s editorial standards. After audio of the meeting was leaked, which lit the match on the multi-front public relations crisis for the network, the outgoing chairwoman of Paramount, Shari Redstone, then publicly slammed CBS News executives for reprimanding Mr. Dokoupil. In the wake of the controversy, internal memos were leaked in which CBS News’ standards executives instructed staff not to refer to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and cautioned staff against referring to Hamas members as terrorists.
