(Headline USA) CBS says it will turn over an unedited transcript of its October interview with Kamala Harris to the Federal Communications Commission, part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing fight with the network over its apparent attempt at election meddling.
Trump sued CBS for $10 million over the 60 Minutes interview, noting that it was deceptively edited to make Harris look good.
🇺🇸EX-CBS STAFF DEMAND PROBE INTO EDITED KAMALA INTERVIEW
They are calling for an independent investigation into 60 Minutes after allegations the show edited Kamala’s answers to make her appear stronger.
A side-by-side comparison shows stark differences between her responses on… pic.twitter.com/sil8BcXZyy
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 11, 2024
Published reports said that CBS’s parent company, Paramount, has been talking to Trump’s lawyers about a settlement.
The network said Friday that it was compelled by Brendan Carr, Trump’s appointee as FCC chairman, to turn over the transcripts and camera feeds of the interview for a parallel investigation by the commission. 60 Minutes has resisted releasing the damning transcripts for this and other interviews, to avoid scrutiny of its editing process.
The case, particularly a potential settlement, was being closely watched by left-wing activists and journalists within CBS, whose lawyers called Trump’s lawsuit “completely without merit” and promised to vigorously fight it after it was filed.
The Harris interview initially drew attention because CBS News showed Harris giving completely different responses to a question posed by correspondent Bill Whitaker in clips that were aired on Face the Nation on Oct. 6 and the next night on 60 Minutes.
The network said each clip came from a lengthy response by Harris to Whitaker’s question, but claimed they were edited to fit time constraints on both broadcasts.
In his lawsuit, filed in Texas on Nov. 1, Trump charged it was deceptive editing designed to benefit Harris and constituted “partisan and unlawful acts of voter interference.”
Trump, who turned down a request to be interviewed by 60 Minutes during the campaign, has continued his fight despite winning the election less than a week after the lawsuit was filed.
During his first term as president, he granted the long-running tabloid show’s Leslie Stahl an interview and then exposed it for deceptive editing that appeared designed to misrepresent his responses and to abet the scandalous cover-up of a story on the Hunter Biden laptop ahead of the 2020 election, which Trump went on to lose under disputed circumstances.
CBS also drew criticism during the 2024 election cycle for stacking the deck with two demonstrably biased moderators, Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell, during the vice-presidential debate between Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrat nominee.
Despite the lopsided questioning and interruptions from the two TDS-afflicted news anchors, consensus was that Vance mopped the floor with all three Democrats.
The network has not commented on talks about a potential settlement, reported by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Paramount executives are seeking Trump administration approval of a sale of the company to another entertainment firm, Skydance.
ABC News in December settled a defamation lawsuit by Trump over statements made by anchor George Stephanopoulos, agreeing to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library.
Stephanopoulos, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, falsely claimed that Trump had been found guilty of “rape” in a lawsuit involving serial accuser E. Jean Carroll.
A New York jury found in the civil trial that Trump was liable for sexual assault in the decades-old incident that Carroll hazily recollected in the lawsuit bankrolled by anti-Trump billionaire Reid Hoffman. The charge requires a much lower threshold than rape and does not necessarily suggest any direct sexual contact.
Meta has reportedly paid $25 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit against the company over its decision to suspend his social media accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising at the U.S. Capitol.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
