A conservative watchdog filed a formal complaint with the FCC that accuses CBS of distortion for airing edited answers from Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview on “60 Minutes.”
The NY Post reports The Center for American Rights (CAR), a nonprofit law firm, demanded the FCC order WCBS-TV — the network’s New York City station — to release the full, unedited “60 Minutes” interview transcript.
“This isn’t just about one interview or one network,” said CAR president Daniel Suhr.
“This is about the public’s trust in the media on critical issues of national security and international relations during one of the most consequential elections of our time. When broadcasters manipulate interviews and distort reality, it undermines democracy itself. The FCC must act swiftly to restore public confidence in our news media.”
In her answer to a question by Bill Whitaker that aired Sunday on “Face the Nation,” Harris said:
The internal polling numbers for Kamala Harris are so depressing that the Dems forced her to do some interviews. Her answers on 60 Minutes were so bad that CBS had to edit them to hide her ineptitude. CBS has been caught in a fraud against American voters. pic.twitter.com/cgJDE9pjfq
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) October 9, 2024
“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.”
During the prime-time broadcast of “60 Minutes” the next night, Harris’ answer was cleaned up: “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 has maintained that the answer was to the same question from Whitaker but that was edited for time constraints.
But Suhr dismissed the excuse.
“CBS crosses a line when its production reaches the point of so transforming an interviewee’s answer that it is a fundamentally different answer,” the filing said.
Harris’ campaign has since fought to distance itself from the network’s editing controversy.
News distortion “must involve a significant event and not merely a minor or incidental aspect of the news report” to be considered a policy violation, according to the FCC.
CAR argued that CBS’ editing of Harris’ interview fit those violation requirements.
No comments:
Post a Comment