CBS has asked the Federal Communications Commission to end its investigation into edits of its “60 Minutes” Kamala Harris interview, arguing that the federal government risks becoming “a roving censor” trampling on free speech rights.
President Trump was furious over the “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Harris in October, in the closing weeks of the campaign.
The president and other conservatives chided CBS after it was revealed that “60 Minutes” producers had edited Harris’ jumbled response to a question about the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
Trump sued CBS for $20 billion, claiming the edits amounted to election interference. The president has demanded “a lot” of money to settle the case, which many 1st Amendment experts call “frivolous.”
The controversy over the “60 Minutes” edits wound up before the FCC last fall when a conservative nonprofit group, the Center for American Rights, filed a news distortion complaint against CBS and its flagship television station, WCBS-TV, in New York.
“CBS distorted the news by using its slice-and-dice method of journalism to justify cleaning up the Vice President’s muddled and meandering answer,” the center said in a filing with the FCC, arguing that “60 Minutes” producers had become “the vice president’s cleanup crew.” More here