CBS still resists releasing full ’60 Minutes’ Harris interview

Former President Donald Trump’s criticism of CBS’s “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris sparked the predictable collapse of traditional media. It’s unfortunate.

Supporters of Trump and Harris should demand that CBS clearly explain why the network significantly changed Harris’ answers about the Biden-Harris administration’s relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In ordinary times, all honest, professional journalists, and especially media critics, would be analyzing CBS’ blatant breach of journalistic ethics.

During the Oct. 6 “Face the Nation” show, the network aired an excerpt of the full “60 Minutes” interview that would air in prime time the next day. In the preview, CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker first asks Harris if the United States has “influence” over Netanyahu, and the vice president responds by mentioning “the help we’ve provided to Israel”, the threat posed by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. and “the imperative to do what we can to enable Israel to defend itself.”

But when “60 Minutes” aired Harris’ response, the network crafted a significantly different response: “The work we do diplomatically with Israel’s leaders is an ongoing search to clarify our principles. »

The message was clear: more aid to Israel. Gone are the threats from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. And instead of the need to ensure Israeli self-defense, viewers get a glimpse of the Biden-Harris administration’s diplomatic efforts.

It’s even worse. On the prime-time show “60 Minutes,” CBS removed Harris’ second response from the preview clip and swapped in a statement for the vice president. made in response to a different question.

In his surrogate response, Harris says the war in Gaza must end: “We will not stop doing what is necessary to make the United States clear on our position on the need to end this war . »

This tactical approach is ethically bankrupt and journalistically indefensible.

The network disingenuously claimed that the edit was a standard exercise of its authority to cut interviews for the sake of time. This rationale might work for the first response, where CBS reduced Harris’ response from four paragraphs to a single sentence, but it completely ignores the substitution of the second response, where “60 Minutes” obviously traded in a one-sentence response. sentence against another.

Regardless, CBS News usually posts the entire interview on its website, as many of its news programs often do. But that was not the case here.

Since CBS has refused to fully explain the editing controversy, viewers are left to speculate as to why the network substituted a different answer to the same prompt. One obvious possibility is that anti-Israel policy is the real driver of this situation.

Following its selective editing, CBS removed Harris’ statements on Israeli aid and self-defense and replaced another response with a statement calling for a ceasefire, to which Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders responded. ‘oppose.

The same day that CBS broadcast the “60 Minutes” montage In that interview, the network also chastised host Tony Dokoupil for his fair but pointed questioning of author Ta-Nehisi Coates, who compared the treatment of Palestinians in Israel to the treatment of African-Americans in southern Israel. Jim Crow on a recent “CBS Mornings.” interview.

To make things more interesting, all of this is taking place amid the impending sale of CBS parent company Paramount Global to Skydance, a media production company run by David Ellison, the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, which is staunchly pro-Israel and has signaled that it will implement massive cost cuts at Paramount.

Instead of looking to CBS for answers, our mainstream media focused on Trump, who called for CBS to lose its broadcast license. The Washington Post claimed that Trump’s push for CBS to lose its broadcast rights “speaks of government control of the media, which is a mark of authoritarianism.”

But as Nathan Simonton, one of five members of the Federal Communications Commission, pointed out, the FCC “acts on complaints of distortion, not complaints about editorial positions,” and the commissioners have already “considered the possibility of distorted reporting.” via splicing” in other cases.

This is another reason why CBS needs to be transparent and release the full transcript of Harris’ “60 Minutes” interview. To reverse its decline in credibility, they must finally do the right thing.

Originally published on RealClearPolitics.com

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here should be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.