CBS News Staff Seethes as Corporate Brass Agree To Hand Over Full Transcript of ‘Deceptively Edited’ Harris Interview To the FCC

CBS says it will finally agree to release the full transcript of an interview Vice President Harris did with CBS News’ “60 Minutes” in the closing months of the 2024 election. This comes as the network is reportedly moving to settle President Trump’s multi-billion dollar lawsuit he brought over the interview, which he claims was deceptively edited. The decision to relent and hand over the full transcript comes after the new commissioner of the FCC, Brendan Carr, re-opened a news distortion complaint against the network and sent a formal demand for the transcript and camera feeds from the interview. CBS News released a statement saying it is “working to comply with that inquiry as we are legally compelled to do.” CBS came under fire after it aired three versions of the same question-and-answer exchange. In each exchange, Ms. Harris gave a different answer to the same question — three different answers — making it clear that the interview had been manipulated. CBS News has been denounced by President Trump for its editing of the ’60 Minutes’ Kamala Harris interview. CBS NewsBroadcast networks such as CBS that use over-the-air frequencies, given exclusively to them by the government and worth billions of dollars in ad revenue, are legally required to provide fair news programming. For decades, conservatives have expressed concern over liberal bias at the network news divisions.CBS News has stubbornly refused to hand over the full transcript of the Harris interview, despite routinely doing so with other interviews — such as an interview with Mike Johnson that aired shortly after the Harris interview — prompting allegations it had deceptively edited the interview to make Ms. Harris sound more coherent and avoid “word salad.” The differences in the three question-and-answer exchanges are stark. 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 was conducting its war against Hamas.She 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.”Margaret Brennan (R) and Norah O’Donnell (L) have been accused of exhibiting liberal bias during the vice presidential debate. Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesHowever, 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.”After the edited clips were posted on social media, President Trump called the editing decision the “worst scandal” in “broadcast history.” He called for the network to lose its broadcast license and filed a $10 billion lawsuit alleging that the network intentionally tried to mislead voters with its edits. Despite liberal legal scholars deriding the suit as “meritless,” multiple reports have since indicated that CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, is in talks to settle the lawsuit. Puck reports the settlement will likely lead to Paramount paying “tens of millions of dollars to the Trump Presidential Library.” However, with a $8 billion deal in the works to sell Paramount to SkyDance, which could be blocked by the FCC, a settlement could be an olive branch aimed at preventing the commission from blocking or further delaying the deal. Speaker Mike Johnson appears on CBS News ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday. CBS NewsThe staff of reliably liberal CBS News are said to be outraged. Puck also reported that high-profile “60 Minutes” personalities, such as Scott Pelley and Lesley Stahl, were fuming after reports of the settlement talks emerged. The outlet also suggested a settlement could prompt resignations or lead to staffers publicly criticizing the deal. Already, the reports of the settlement talks have prompted liberal First Amendment advocates to criticize CBS. A First Amendment lawyer, Floyd Abrams, told Los Angeles Times, “It is a sad day. It’s heart-breaking that CBS —say it again, CBS — seems ready to pay big bucks for its own editing decisions.”The settlement would resolve Mr. Trump’s lawsuit. However, CBS is once again facing a news distortion complaint filed with the FCC. Last week, the FCC re-opened the complaint brought by the Center for American Rights, accusing it of news distortion, which was dismissed on January 16. The 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.FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, a Biden appointee, denounced President Trump for calling for CBS’ license to be revoked over its selective editing of the ’60 Minutes’ Kamala Harris interview. Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Hispanic Heritage FoundationThe 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 asked that the FCC force it to release the transcript of its interview with Ms. Harris.CBS News has previously denied that it engaged in “deceitful editing.” In a statement in October, it sought to explain the different versions of the answer, saying, “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 portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide-ranging 21-minute-long segment,” the statement added. The decision to comply with the FCC’s demand for the transcript may resolve questions about how the edits were made. However, the network will likely still receive scrutiny from conservatives over allegations of its liberal bias, such as its decision to “fact-check” Vice President Vance during the vice presidential debate, despite previously vowing it would not do so. Mr. Carr also reopened inquiries into complaints against ABC News and NBC News. ABC is under fire for its hosts’ conduct during the one presidential debate last year, during which they aggressively fact-checked Mr. Trump but not Ms. Harris, and steered the line of questioning toward areas of strength for Ms. Harris, such as abortion. NBC News is the object of complaints after it gave Ms. Harris a surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live” but did not extend the same invitation to Mr. Trump.

CBS News Staff Seethes as Corporate Brass Agree To Hand Over Full Transcript of ‘Deceptively Edited’ Harris Interview To the FCC

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