The turmoil over liberal and anti-Israel bias at CBS News has now drawn in top executives from its parent company, Paramount, and cast a harsh spotlight on the storied news division’s new management team, who hail from its local station group and have no editorial experience in national news coverage. A slip-up by the network disclosed that it made multiple, contradictory edits to an answer Vice President Harris gave to CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker of “60 Minutes.”President Trump spoke about the edits during an event at the Detroit Economic Club on Thursday and called it a “fraud,” alleging the network coordinated with the Democratic Party to help Ms. Harris’ campaign. The former president said he has never experienced CBS editing his interviews to improve his answers.Further, in leaked documents from inside CBS News, a senior editorial standards and practices executive ruled that CBS News journalists may not refer to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel because Palestinians object to that designation.This follows days of controversy over CBS News management’s reprimand, on the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, of its Jewish show host Tony Dokoupil for challenging, on a broadcast of “CBS Mornings”, the far-left author, Ta Nehesi Coates, about comments he made about Israel in his new book.The ‘60 Minutes’ edit controversyDuring a pre-taped interview with “60 Minutes” that aired Monday evening, the vice president was asked why Prime Minister Netanyahu does not seem to be heeding the warnings or wishes of American officials.In an excerpt released Sunday on the CBS News program “Face the Nation”, to promote Monday night’s interview, Ms. Harris responded that, “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 version of the interview that aired on Monday night’s special edition of “60 Minutes”, Ms. Harris answered the question differently, 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 late Sunday morning by CBS News on X, which included yet another answer from Ms. Harris to the same question. 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.” Trump’s campaign is demanding that CBS release the full interview transcript, alleging the edit was made to “lessen Kamala’s idiotic response” to help her campaign.The three different versions of Ms. Harris’ answer to Mr. Whitaker’s question about Mr. Netanyahu shows that CBS News selectively edited the interview, rather than just releasing a straight question and answer. Editing of taped television interviews for clarity, or to sustain a certain narrative, is not uncommon in unscripted television. However, considering the scrutiny Ms. Harris is under for giving so few interviews to national journalists, and over whether she has the ability to answer questions coherently, CBS News is under fire for not just broadcasting the interview as it took place.In addition to his comments in Detroit, Trump, in several posts on his social media platform, Truth Social, attacked CBS News, accusing it of perpetrating the “Greatest Fraud in Broadcast History.” He said Ms. Harris’ “real answer was crazy or dumb” and was replaced “in order to save her.” The former president also said the network should lose its broadcast license. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman criticized the network for the edits, which he said in a post on X could be the “worst violation of journalistic ethics ever during a presidential election.” “This violation of the public trust requires a CEO-level intervention, acknowledgment and apology. And the viewing public needs to see the unedited, unexpurgated interview in order for the public not to be misled in the last days before the election,” Mr. Ackman wrote. “Anything less is a whitewash and an acknowledgment that CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon orchestrated the manipulation. Who else on the CBS team would be bold enough to do the cut and paste at the risk of destroying [‘60 Minutes’]?”The Ta-Nehisi Coates Interview on “CBS Mornings”Allegations of an anti-conservative bias are nothing new for CBS. And the question of how and why the “60 Minutes” edits were approved is just one of the crises engulfing CBS News. The Tiffany Network is also under fire for its handling of an interview with bestselling author Ta-Nehisi Coates about his new book “The Message.”“CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil interviewed Mr. Coates about his book on September 30 and asked him about the lack of references to the constant threats Israel faces while he criticized the Jewish state. Mr. Dokoupil, who is Jewish and has children living in Israel with his ex-wife, suggested during the interview that the language about Israel in Mr. Coates’ newest book was similar to literature that might be “in the backpack of an extremist.” The morning show co-host also asked why Mr. Coates did not even mention previous terrorist attacks in Israel or the first or second intifada. The interview sparked internal complaints that reached the network’s Race and Culture unit, Puck reported. The unit, which is supposed to decide if a segment’s “tone, content, and intention” are fit for the air, did not find an issue with Mr. Dokoupil’s questions but rather his tone, even though observers such as the Washington Post called the exchange “calm” and “heartfelt.”The controversy eventually made its way to top executives, and during a morning meeting on the anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 massacre, Adrienne Roark, who oversees news gathering at the network, read extensively from the CBS News handbook. She then declared the interview did not meet editorial standards. After that meeting, executives originally planned to bring in a “mental health expert, DEI strategist, and trauma trainer,” Dr. Donald Grant, to moderate a conversation. Once Dr. Grant’s planned attendance was made public, some of his old Instagram posts came to light. In one, he referred to Senator Tim Scott as “Uncle Tim,” a play on “Uncle Tom.” In another post, he claimed a second Trump term would lead to the “death of a nation.”Executives then nixed the plan to include the DEI expert, and Tuesday’s morning meeting was full of emotion, with staffers “yelling,” suggesting that “Israel’s existence as a state should be a part of fair conversation,” and employees tearing up, according to the Free Press. Other staffers called the Coates interview “racist” and “xenophobic,” Puck reported. Despite CBS News employees being upset by the interview with Mr. Coates, the author himself has brushed off the alleged offense. In an interview for Trevor Noah’s podcast, Mr. Coates said he was not insulted and was prepared for some pushback over his book. The network’s leadership is facing increasing criticism over its handling of the situation. In a statement to The New York Sun, the founder of #EndJewHatred, Brooke Goldstein, said, “Given the long history of bias against Israel and the lack of recognition of the basic civil rights Jews are entitled to as a minority people on the part of many media outlets, it is entirely unsurprising that CBS executives would reprimand a Jewish reporter merely for providing context and perspective when interviewing a notorious Jew-hater about his biased views.”“What this tells us is that CBS is more concerned with promoting racism than with confronting it, that Jew-hatred is so systemic within the company that any attempt to call it out results in immediate censure. It also tells us that CBS has not only lost its way and its moral compass, but the trust of the American people, earned long ago by honorable voices like Walter Cronkite,” Ms. Goldstein continued. “The current leadership of CBS needs to be terminated before it can do even more damage to our society.”Where is Jerusalem? On Wednesday, the Free Press reported the senior director of CBS News’ standards and practices unit, Mark Memmott, told employees in August not to refer to Jerusalem as “being in Israel” because “its status is disputed.” Mr. Memmott noted, “Israel regards Jerusalem as its ‘eternal and undivided’ capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem — occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war — as the capital of a future state.”Meanwhile, an analyst at the media research firm LightShed, Rich Greenfield, asked on X why CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon had not already been fired. “Admonishing reporters who are trying to balance an interview that is one-sided and ignores actual history is insanity — let reporters do their job,” Mr. Greenfield added. The CEO of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, Sacha Roytman, called on CBS News to “apologize to Dokoupil and the entire Jewish community.” Mr. Roytman told The Sun that CBS “has proven itself to be hostile to Israel and the vast majority of Americans of all faiths who support the Jewish state and its right to exist in security. Unfortunately, CBS is doubling down by reportedly taking an editorial stance to no longer acknowledge that Jerusalem, sacred to the Jewish people from time immemorial and Israel’s modern-day capital, is even part of the country.”CBS News’ leadership: a troika from local TV newsThe problems for the network come as it is being run by leadership that lacks experience in managing the complexities of national and international news coverage. In August, Ms. McMahon announced a shake-up of the network’s leadership team, elevating Ms. Roark and Jennifer Mitchell to senior positions.Mr. Roark and Ms. Mitchell came on board after the ouster of Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, a longtime and deeply experienced CBS News executive dogged by controversies and human resources investigations.CBS News’ new management troika — Ms. McMahon, Ms. Roark and Ms. Mitchell — have spent their careers in local news jobs and have no experience in national and international news coverage. They are believed to have been put in place to find efficiencies and save money but integrating CBS News’ expensive news gathering operation with the station group. Puck reported that “many at CBS News, and across the media industry more broadly,” saw the handling of the Dokoupil situation as a “leadership failure on the part of McMahon, who had simultaneously exposed a star anchor and let an internal editorial debate metastasize into a full-blown controversy.”Ms. McMahon’s, who got her start doing promos at a local TV station in Savannah, Georgia, had no national or international news experience when she was made co-president of CBS News and Stations alongside Neeraj Khemlani, a former “60 Minutes” producer. After Mr. Khemlani was pushed out two years later — dogged by accusations that he was “rude” — Ms. McMahon assumed full control of CBS News and of the CBS local station group. The chairwoman of Paramount Global, which controls CBS, Shari Redstone, addressed CBS News’ handling of the Coates interview during a panel at the 2024 Adweek conference in New York City on Wednesday that was focused on combatting hate and increasing civic participation. Ms. Redstone, an observant Jew and supporter of Israel, said executives “made a mistake” in criticizing the interview and saying it did not meet the network’s editorial standards. She added that she believes Mr. Dokoupil did a “great job” with the interview. However, the president of the CBS Entertainment Group and co-chief of Paramount, George Cheeks, defended Ms. McMahon, calling her an “outstanding” and “accomplished” leader.Despite Mr. Cheeks’ defense of Ms. McMahon, Puck’s Dylan Byers notes the “discourse in media circles has obviously shifted from questions about Dokoupil’s future at the network to speculation about McMahon and Roark’s.” “Needless to say, they were put in an extremely difficult situation, tasked with addressing heated internal frustrations over one of the most fraught and contentious issues in modern society…And, no matter how you feel about the substance or style of the interview itself, the fact that it mushroomed into an all-consuming P.R. catastrophe obviously reflects on imperfect structural dynamics,” Byers added. “Her failure to anticipate this outcome, and the reputational hit to CBS, has raised broader questions about her command of the delicate art of newsroom management.”CBS News did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the CEO of Skydance Media, David Ellison, which is set to merge with Paramount and announced plans to “enhance and reinvigorate” the CBS brand.
