A member of the FCC has asked the body’s chair to take up a complaint filed with the FCC to compel CBS to release the full transcript from its “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Daily Caller News learned first.
CBS aired two different broadcasts with separate answers from Harris in response to the same question from “60 Minutes” interviewer Bill Whitaker on whether Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “listening” to the Biden-Harris administration. FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said that while the commission often receives frivolous complaints alleging news distortion, the complaint lodged on Oct. 16 by the Center for American Rights (CAR) against WCBS, CBS’ New York subsidiary, is substantively different and should not be dismissed at face value.
“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,” Harris responded in a previewed clip of the “60 Minutes” interview that aired on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Oct. 6.
“We are not gonna stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end, “Harris answered during the “60 Minutes” broadcast that aired the following night in primetime.
“The FCC does not regulate, or really even respond to, allegations of politically unfavorable coverage or legitimate editorial discretion,” Simington wrote in a statement to the DCN. “The recent complaint regarding WCBS-TV raises a fully different set of issues regarding whether or not coverage was intentionally distorted: reporting that something was said in response to a question that literally was not. I don’t know whether that’s true, but it’s a different issue.”
A person familiar with the FCC told the DCN that while CAR’s complaint could potentially move forward, the Democratic chair of the commission, Jessica Rosenworcel, is unlikely to act on the complaint, especially 18 days before the presidential election. In the event former President Donald Trump returns to the White House, the commission could be given a green light to act on the complaint with a Republican commissioner appointed as chair, the person told the DNCF.
When any of CBS News’ wholly owned and operated broadcast subsidiaries attempt to renew their license under a majority Republican FCC, the commission could put conditions on the license, including compelling the broadcaster to release the “60 Minutes” transcript, according to the person.
CAR’s complaint alleges that because WCBS aired two distinct broadcasts of the Harris interview — one on “Face the Nation” and the other on “60 Minutes” — with different responses from the Democratic candidate, the conflicting answers “amount to deliberate news distortion.”
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