CBS News Says It Will Provide Unedited Transcript Of '60 Minutes' Kamala Harris Interview To FCC
CBS News said Friday that it will comply with an FCC letter of inquiry that it provide an unedited transcript of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.
The interview, which aired in the final weeks of the presidential election in October, did not involve Donald Trump. But in the segment, Harris gave a different answer to a question than the one that aired during a promo on Face the Nation. Trump, claiming the network was intentionally editing the interview to help Harris, called for the network to lose its broadcast licenses and filed a $10 billion lawsuit.
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CBS News said that 60 Minutes and Face the Nation merely used different parts of the answer to the same question, with the edits due to time constraints. They denied that there was any deception taking place, but a conservative group, the Center for American Rights, filed a complaint with the FCC.
CBS News said in a statement, 'Late Wednesday, CBS News was sent a Letter of Inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission asking for the full, unedited transcript and camera feeds from our interview with Vice President Harris which aired on October 7, 2024. We are working to comply with that inquiry as we are legally compelled to do.' The New York Times first reported on the FCC letter.
FCC chairman Brendan Carr, appointed by Trump, has given credence to the complaint under the agency's 'news distortion' policy, a rarely enforced policy designed to sanction stations who have been proven to have 'deliberately distorted a factual news report.' But the agency also notes in its guidelines that its authority is narrow, and that it is 'prohibited by law from engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press.'
Separately, Trump sued the network in October under Texas' Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which generally is aimed at false advertising. He claimed that the 60 Minutes interview edits — a rather standard practice in the business — cost him billions of dollars in damages. The network has contended that its news decisions are fully protected by the First Amendment, and a number of legal observers see the lawsuit as frivolous.
Yet as Skydance seeks FCC approval for its acquisition of Paramount Global, sources say that there have been talks with the Trump team about settling the case, potentially removing an impediment to regulatory approval.
Carr has said that the 60 Minutes complaint was 'likely to arise' as part of the review of the transaction. A spokesperson for Carr did not immediately return a request for comment.
Anna Gomez, one of two Democratic FCC commissioners, said in a statement that the FCC inquiry was 'a retaliatory move by the government against broadcasters whose content or coverage is perceived to be unfavorable. It is designed to instill fear in broadcast stations and influence a network's editorial decisions.'
She added, 'The Communications Act clearly prohibits the Commission from censoring broadcasters and the First Amendment protects journalistic decisions against government intimidation. We must respect the rule of law, uphold the Constitution, and safeguard public trust in our oversight of broadcasters.'
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