CBS News’ defiant statement defending its controversial editing of its “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this month has run afoul of critics, who have stepped up calls for the network to release an unedited transcript. .
After weeks of keeping quiet despite mounting criticism of the interview, CBS released a statement Sunday night addressing the outrage that followed after it aired two different answers to the same question in a “60 Minutes” interview earlier this month with the Democratic nominee. .
CBS News infamously aired Harris offering a widely mocked, muddled response to a question critical of Israel while promoting the interview, but a shorter response to the same question appeared instead in primetime on “60 Minutes “.
The CBS News statement said former President Trump’s claim that “deceptive editing” was used is “false” and explained that producers used a “more condensed” portion of Harris’ response.
“Instead of releasing the full 60 Minutes interview and transcript, CBS released a statement somehow blaming Donald Trump,” Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell told Fox News Digital.
“Is CBS a news organization or a Democratic Super PAC?” Bozell added. “If CBS has nothing to hide, it should stop hiding it.”
Fox News contributor Joe Concha noted that it took 14 days for CBS News to issue a statement.
“This statement ’60 Minutes’ put out is absolutely nonsense,” Concha said Monday on “FOX & Friends First.”
“The only solution here is for the program to output the full transcript. Release the hounds, release the entire interview from start to finish, but the network won’t do it,” Concha continued. “You know why they won’t do it?”
Concha believes there are two reasons why CBS won’t oblige.
“One, the people who run the network want Kamala Harris to win and Donald Trump to lose. This isn’t about journalism, it’s about activism,” Concha said.
“Two, they know that by releasing the transcript, or the unedited video, it’s likely to show that in many cases, this interview gutted the various word salad that the vice president served up again,” he added. “Her campaign is now reduced to just talking about Trump. It doesn’t work.”
Former President Trump dramatically called it possibly “the biggest scandal in the history of broadcasting” in a message posted to X.
Trump also sent a letter to CBS News demanding that it release the unredacted transcript. In a copy of the letter obtained by Fox News Digital, Trump legal counsel Edward Andrew Paltzik, writing on Trump’s behalf, said CBS News “deliberately misled the public by airing an expertly edited transcript of the interview intended to caused confusion among the electorate. about the skills, intelligence and appeal of Vice President Kamala Harris.”
OutKick’s Dan Zaksheske said CBS could “release the entire interview or transcript” and put this evidence to bed.
“It’s 2024. It’s not like CBS should be airing the interview on network television. Put it on YouTube. It would probably get 10 million views. It should be easy and generate additional views for the interview,” wrote Zaksheske.
“The only reason they wouldn’t do that is if they don’t want people to see the whole interview,” he added. “That’s what makes people suspicious.”
Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson believes the release of the full transcript is “essential since there appears to be a discrepancy between the two responses broadcast” by the network.
“If in fact CBS News cherry picked different segments of a longer response, as it claims, then the public still needs to see the full response and context. If CBS News has nothing to hide, then why is it hiding the full transcript?” Jacobson told Fox News Digital.
The Trump campaign issued a scathing comment in response to CBS News’ explanation, and the “60 Minutes” statement quickly exploded on social media.
“The way you know 60 Minutes is 100% guilty and just pissed about the catch is that they released this pathetic defensive statement that almost immediately goes ‘but Trump’ instead of releasing the full transcript of Kamala’s interview,” conservative influencer. Greg Price replied.
NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck asked, “What are you all hiding?”
“Publish. To. Transcript,” replied Article 3 Project senior adviser Will Chamberlain, while celebrity chef Andrew Gruel said, “That just made it worse.”
Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway continued calls for CBS to release an unedited transcript.
“60 Minutes continues to withhold the unredacted transcript of its interview with Kamala Harris. Here, they also lie about the controversy surrounding that transcript. The extent of their fraudulent redactions must be SIGNIFICANT for them to refuse to release the actual transcript,” Hemingway wrote.
Hemingway added in a separate post, “RELEASE UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT. How bad is it that you are hiding?”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., agreed and called for CBS News to “release the FULL transcript and video.”
“When you’re explaining… you’re missing out,” added comedian Tim Young.
“Seems like it would be much easier to just release the transcript… Something that btw should be standard procedure for all news organizations for interviews with political candidates,” AG Hamilton reacted.
Others mocked CBS News for the explanation:
The CBS News statement insisted that Harris’ two sound bites were both in response to correspondent Bill Whitaker asking why it seemed like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not listening to the US.
“Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of fraudulently editing our October 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. This is false,” the statement began.
“60 Minutes” provided an excerpt of our interview to “Face the Nation” that used a longer portion of her response than the one on “60 Minutes.” Same question. Same answer. But another part of the answer. When editing any interview, be it a politician, athlete or movie star, we strive to be clear, precise and accurate. Her response portion on “60 Minutes” was more succinct, allowing time for other subjects in a sprawling 21-minute segment.”
The statement then said Trump “withdrew his interview with 60 Minutes and the vice president attended.” The Trump campaign denied ever formally accepting the interview invitation.
“Our longstanding invitation to former President Trump remains open,” the statement continued. “If he would like to discuss the issues facing the nation and the Harris interview, we would be happy to have him on 60 Minutes.”
DePauw University professor Jeffrey McCall said CBS “may not know,” but a key issue in the campaign is whether Harris can coherently express her positions and opinions, and the statement “hardly settles the matter.”
“She has developed a reputation as someone who has difficulty articulating her rhetorical points and sometimes ends up speaking in ‘word salad.'” So when CBS engages in any kind of editing of a news interview with Harris, it is actually manipulating and changing the content. Given that it’s CBS doing the editing, most Americans would assume that the editing is being done to help Harris appear more articulate than he would otherwise,” McCall told Fox News Digital.
CBS News did not immediately respond Monday when asked if it would release the transcript.
The network has ignored calls to release the transcript or unedited footage since the controversy began.
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