FCC Urged To Address ‘Deeper Disease’ and ‘Relentless Bias’ at CBS News, Require ‘60 Minutes’ To ‘Promptly’ Release Transcripts of All Political Interviews

The Federal Communications Commission is being urged to require CBS News to release transcripts of its political interviews conducted by its flagship program, “60 Minutes.”The center-right law firm, the Center for American Rights, or CAR, submitted a filing to the FCC as part of the public comment process of its “news distortion” complaint against CBS over its editing of Vice President Harris’ interview with “60 Minutes” in the final weeks of the 2024 election. CAR argues that the Harris interview is “symptomatic of a deeper disease pervasive in CBS’s newsroom: a relentless bias towards one side of the political aisle.” While the FCC is investigating CBS for news distortion, it is also reviewing a merger agreement between the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, and Skydance. The merger, which will have significant consequences for Hollywood, is being held up indefinitely by the government. This comes as CBS Inc. is believed to be in settlement talks with President Trump over his $20 billion lawsuit against the Tiffany Network over the Harris interview.In its public comment to the FCC, CAR suggests the FCC “has an opportunity to address the deeper disease” and “should act to protect the public interest in that case.”Specifically, CAR said that the FCC should add conditions to the Skydance merger deal to require CBS to “add viewpoint diversity to the corporate officers responsible for CBS.” It also said the network should “move editorial and reporting operations out of only New York and Los Angeles,” and “diversify” its hiring “pipeline to include reporters and producers from colleges, graduate schools, internship programs, and lateral hires from a broader range of diverse backgrounds, including people from rural communities, people of faith, and conservatives.”The group also said “60 Minutes” should be required to “promptly release complete transcripts of all interviews with sitting public officials and candidates.”“Its sister CBS News program Face the Nation promptly issues complete transcripts of its interviews (including those portions not aired). With the advent and accuracy of AI technology, producing and releasing transcripts would be a minimal burden, but would represent a significant step toward ensuring ‘sunlight’ in CBS’s newsroom,” the group said.While “Face The Nation” has regularly released transcripts, “60 Minutes” came under fire after it refused to release the Harris interview transcript for months – and it only did so after the FCC ordered it to. The filing comes as left-wing organizations, free speech advocacy groups, and some pro-Trump organizations have urged the FCC to drop its news distortion investigation, citing concerns about the commission being weaponized. CAR filed its complaint after “60 Minutes” was exposed for selectively editing Ms. Harris’s answer to a question about Prime Minister Netanyahu to remove what critics say was a “word salad” and make her answer sound more coherent. The editing was exposed after “60 Minutes” gave clips of the Netanyahu question-and-answer sequence to lesser CBS News platforms, “Face the Nation” and CBSNews.com. When these programs broadcast the clips, astute observers noted that Ms. Harris gave three different answers to the same question on the three different CBS News platforms. CBS would argue that it was standard practice to edit taped interviews for clarity. But when the “60 Minutes” interview aired, Ms. Harris’ avoidance of news interviews and difficulty expressing herself coherently had become a major issue in the campaign.President Biden’s FCC quickly tossed out the news distortion complaint against CBS, but Mr. Trump’s new FCC chair, Brendan Carr, revived it. Unlike cable or streaming news channels, CBS has exclusive access to public airwaves and, therefore, is legally required to broadcast fair and truthful news coverage. Should the FCC find CBS at fault, it could lead to fines. But more significantly, the FCC probe may be holding up Paramount’s merger with Skydance.The FCC says that it investigates allegations of “news distortion,” or incidents when public brocasters are accused of “rigging or slanting the news. Despite the pressure to drop the probe, Mr. Carr has insisted he will keep it open. CBS has defended its editing of the Harris interview. In a filing on Monday, the network said there is “zero evidence” of news distortion.“First, there was no ‘rigging, staging, or distorting’ of the news,” CBS said. “The record shows that the Complaint fails to meet the second prong of the news distortion policy, because it did not (and cannot) produce ‘extrinsic evidence’ of any ‘deliberat[e] inten[t] to slant or mislead’. The only information offered by any commenter is the interview itself, a piece of ‘evidence’ which is the very opposite of the definition of ‘extrinsic.’”CBS also pointed to a group of eight conservative organizations that urged the FCC to dismiss the news distortion complaint due to concerns that “an adverse ruling against CBS would constitute regulatory overreach and advance precedent that can be weaponized by future FCCs.”The news distortion complaint has become a headache for executives at CBS and Paramount amid the attempt to merge with Skydance. Even if the probe does not derail the deal, Mr. Carr warned that Paramount and Skydance might not be in the clear as he said the FCC could kill the merger deal due to corporate DEI policies. Whether the FCC has the authority to block the merger for DEI purposes is not clear. However, Paramount recently roiled its staff by announcing it would roll back its DEI initiatives.

FCC Urged To Address ‘Deeper Disease’ and ‘Relentless Bias’ at CBS News, Require ‘60 Minutes’ To ‘Promptly’ Release Transcripts of All Political Interviews

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