Newly Released Transcript of Harris’s ‘60 Minutes’ Interview Shows CBS Edited Answer to Key Question, Making Her Sound Coherent

CBS News published on Wednesday the full transcript and unedited video of the controversial “60 Minutes” interview with erstwhile Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, at the direction of the Federal Communication Commission. The segment lies at the center of an FCC investigation and a $10 billion lawsuit filed by President Trump who accused the network of editing Ms. Harris’s “word salad” to boost the candidate’s chances of electoral victory. CBS News, which claims it did nothing wrong, had previously refused to release the transcript, but did so after it was formally ordered to by Mr. Trump’s new FCC commissioner, Brendan Carr. Mr. Carr said that publicizing the footage and opening up a case file would “serve the public interest” and allow “the people” to “have a chance to weigh in.” The transcript and unedited video discloses that in the disputed section of the interview, CBS News selectively edited Ms. Harris’ answer to a question from the interviewer, Bill Whitaker, about Prime Minister Netanyahu, in a way that made her sound more coherent. The edited interview was broadcast to millions of Americans on “60 Minutes.”The raw version of the interview, unedited, was thus: BILL WHITAKER: “But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening. The Wall Street Journal said that he — that your administration has repeatedly been blindsided by Netanyahu, and in fact, he has rebuffed just about all of your administration’s entreaties.” THE VICE PRESIDENT: “Well, Bill, 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. And we’re not going to stop doing that. 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.” On “60 Minutes,” CBS played the full question by Mr. Whitaker, but removed the incoherent beginning of her answer. To the viewer, it appeared that Ms. Harris immediately answered the question coherently:BILL WHITAKER: “But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening. The Wall Street Journal said that he — that your administration has repeatedly been blindsided by Netanyahu, and in fact, he has rebuffed just about all of your administration’s entreaties.” THE VICE PRESIDENT: “And we’re not going to stop doing that. 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.” CBS also released other versions of this Q and A, on its “Face the Nation” Sunday program and online, but these versions received a tiny fraction of the viewership of the “60 Minutes” special, and served merely to alert careful observers that the “60 Minutes version had likely been manipulated to make Ms. Harris sound coherent.Kamala Harris sits down with Bill Whitaker for her ’60 Minutes’ interview. CBS NewsCBS News defended the unedited footage, stating that the transcript and videos “show — consistent with 60 Minutes’ repeated assurances to the public — that the 60 Minutes broadcast was not doctored or deceitful.” The network added: “In reporting the news, journalists regularly edit interviews — for time, space or clarity. In making these edits, 60 Minutes is always guided by the truth and what we believe will be most informative to the viewing public — all while working within the constraints of broadcast television.” At the time of the interview, Ms. Harris was being assailed by critics for avoiding substantive interviews, and accused of being unable to successfully speak off the cuff and without rehearsal. It had become a major issue for many voters. Her decision to do “60 Minutes” was seen as an effort to show voters she could, indeed, successfully submit to a news interview with a journalist. In his lawsuit, Mr. Trump argued that by making Ms. Harris sound more coherent, CBS News, which has been dogged for decades by allegations of liberal bias, was deliberately aiding her campaign. CBS forked over the footage at the direction of Mr. Carr, amid his investigation into whether the network violated the commission’s “news distortion policy.” As one of the handful of broadcast networks, CBS broadcasts its programming over public airwaves to an enormous audience and brings in billions of dollars in advertising revenue. Legally, as part of its stewardship of these public airwaves, CBS is required to air accurate and responsible news programming. The probe was launched after conservative group, The Center for American Rights, filed a complaint with the FCC. The CAR’s complaint noted that this “kind of editing is normal in the context of a news magazine style show” like “60 Minutes.” However, the group added that “CBS crosses a line when its production reaches the point of so transforming an interviewee’s answer that it is a fundamentally different answer.”ABC News’s David Muir and Linsey Davis moderate the September 10, 2024 presidential debate. ABC / YouTubeIn the words of Mr. Carr himself, “The policy says you can’t swap answers out to make it look like somebody said something entirely different,” he said on Fox News on Monday. He later added it would have been “fine” if it was edited for length and clarity. In October, Mr. Trump filed a $10 billion election interference lawsuit against CBS, accusing the network of selectively editing Ms. Harris’s segment “to tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party.” The lawsuit alleges: “To paper over Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news.” Mr. Carr’s FCC recently reinstated two investigations of the two other biggest broadcast networks, ABC and NBC, over their alleged distortion of coverage to favor Ms. Harris. ABC is accused of, while hosting the one presidential debate, aggressively fact-checking Mr. Trump and not Ms. Harris, and steering the debate toward topics of strength for Ms. Harris, such as abortion, and away from topics of strength for Mr. Trump, like immigration. NBC is accused of unfairly giving Ms. Harris a playful, surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live” very close to Election Day, without offering Mr. Trump a similar berth. President Biden’s FCC commissioner had closed the probes. Mr. Carr reinstated them.

Newly Released Transcript of Harris’s ‘60 Minutes’ Interview Shows CBS Edited Answer to Key Question, Making Her Sound Coherent

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