CBS News has been under public scrutiny for weeks for its “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris, in particular for her answer about Israel-U.S. relations. Harris, known for her "word salad" comments, delivered a surprisingly succinct answer in the Monday evening TV special that aired Oct. 7 in primetime.
Some alert TV viewers, however, recalled a teasing segment that aired Sunday on the “Face the Nation” program. In that segment, the vice president’s rambling answer about U.S.-Israel relations appeared to be completely different from the answer that aired a day later, which suggested heavy work by dishonest editors.
CBS News is now belatedly defending its heavy editing, in a statement published Oct. 20, but that statement comes only after the group Center for American Rights filed a formal complaint with the FCC alleging “deliberate news distortion” by CBS.
CBS News also responded after Trump alleged the news outlet was helping Harris despite her “horrible, incompetent” answer, and he said CBS deserves to lose its FCC license.
“I think I'm gonna sue them, actually,” Trump told show host Dan Bongino late last week.
In a Fox News interview about the controversy, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington was asked if the former president has a legitimate case against CBS for its Harris interview. Although he refused to comment on a possible lawsuit itself, the commissioner said Section 326 states the FCC doesn’t have the authority to censor content. To launch any inquiry, he said, there must be evidence of “deliberate distortion” such as a “yes” answer being substituted for a “no” answer in a news interview. That scenario has been discussed by the commissioners in the past, he said.
“So the Commission has certainly contemplated the possibility of distortionary reporting taking place via splicing," he told Fox News, which is itself a hated right-wing target of Democrats and the Far Left.
Regarding the formal CAR complaint against CBS, Simington concluded the complaint could come before the five-member Commission in the future.
“I don't think that this complaint is facially ridiculous,” he concluded, “and it would not be inappropriate for the Commission to take it up.”
The powerful FCC Commission recently made news for a controversial 3-2 vote that skirted its own rules to give billionaire George Soros control of a 200-station radio network.
Two of the commissioners, Simington and Brendan Carr, were the dissenting votes.
CBS News is also being ripped by House Speaker Mike Johnson for editing his interviews in a pre-taped segment for the "Face the Nation" program. Johnson, or his staff, taped the interviews and posted his full answers on X.
