A newly released transcript of a contested interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris refutes President Donald Trump’s assertions that CBS committed “election interference” last October.
The Harris interview led Trump to sue CBS, and a pro-Trump advocacy group filed a formal complaint with the FCC, the federal agency that licenses local TV stations.
CBS had, until recently, refused to publish the full transcript of the Harris interview, creating an information vacuum that helped conspiracy theories to flourish. But the network handed over the transcript and tapes for an FCC inquiry, and on Wednesday the agency released the materials, citing “the value of transparency and the public interest here.”
The transcript confirms what CBS said: That it engaged in normal editing, not any nefarious activity like Trump alleged.
Instead of saying “case closed,” though, FCC chair Brendan Carr is opening up the matter to public comment and extending the case for at least another six weeks.
Critics continue to charge that Carr is weaponizing the historically independent FCC to advance Trump’s anti-media agenda.
Those critics include one of the Democrats on the commission, Anna M. Gomez, who says “the FCC should now move to dismiss this fishing expedition to avoid further politicizing our enforcement actions.”
The source of the controversy
Last fall, “60 Minutes,” the highest-rated newsmagazine in America, sought to interview both Trump and Harris for a special pre-election program. Harris agreed and Trump declined.
Correspondent Bill Whitaker pressed then-Vice President Harris on the Biden administration’s relationship with Israel amid the war in Gaza. Whitaker asked why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “not listening” to the United States, and Harris answered by defending the administration.
It was not a particularly newsworthy exchange. But CBS aired two different parts of Harris’s answer on different broadcasts.
In a preview clip that aired on “Face the Nation,” Harris was shown saying that “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 actual “60 Minutes” program, in response to the same question, she was shown saying “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.”
As criticism mounted and Trump threatened to sue, CBS said it merely edited her answer for time, in accordance with television news standards.
But CBS essentially asked the public to take the network’s word for it, refusing to share the full transcript.
On the campaign trail Trump attacked the network repeatedly, charging that “they took the answer out in its entirety, threw it away, and they put another answer in.”
The transcript confirms that’s not true. CBS showed one part of her answer on Sunday and the other part of her answer on Monday.
Trump also called the controversy “the Greatest Fraud in Broadcast History” and said “CBS should lose its license.”
The transcript does not indicate any fraudulent behavior by CBS.
The FCC fallout
Shortly before Election Day, Trump sued CBS in federal court alleging that the interview was deceptively “doctored.” Legal experts said the suit was frivolous and CBS said “we will vigorously defend against it.”
But the suit became a problem for the news division’s parent company, Paramount Global, once Trump won the election. Paramount is awaiting government approval of its pending merger with Skydance Media. Outside analysts, citing Trump’s transactional nature, predicted that Paramount may have a hard time getting the necessary federal approvals.
Last week The New York Times reported that Paramount is now trying to settle the suit, despite having a strong legal case.
The complaint to the FCC moved along on a parallel track. The Center for American Rights alleged that “60 Minutes” violated the FCC’s “news distortion” policy.
According to the agency’s website, “news distortion” must “involve a significant event,” not a minor part of a news report, and must require proof that a broadcaster “deliberately distorted a factual news report.”
Carr’s predecessor atop the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, dismissed the complaint in one of her last acts as FCC chair.
But Carr, who Trump appointed in 2017 and promoted to chair last month, brought it back to life.
Carr acknowledged in interviews that the bar for proving “news distortion” was very high – for instance, it would apply if someone said “no” in an interview, but a TV station edited the segment to appear like the person said “yes.”
But he argued that he had to send a letter to CBS asking for the transcript and tapes from the interview.
“I don’t see how the FCC can reasonably adjudicate this claim of news distortion without seeing what was actually said,” Carr told CNN.
Now he has.
The material supplied by CBS showed debatable but normal editing practices, not deliberate distortion.
The network pointed this out in a statement on Wednesday, saying the transcript and video “show – consistent with 60 Minutes’ repeated assurances to the public – that the 60 Minutes broadcast was not doctored or deceitful.”
Carr is prolonging the pain for CBS, however, by opening the case up for public comment through March.
Gomez called his action “unprecedented and reckless,” adding, “this action sets a dangerous precedent that threatens to undermine trust in the FCC’s role as an impartial regulator.”
Carr has also announced probes of NPR, PBS and a local radio station that reportedly broadcast the live locations of undercover ICE agents.
