FCC on Tuesday dismissed CBS’s offer to immediately reject a complaint from a conservative group for the controversial “60 minutes” interview with Democratic Presidential Harris candidate just weeks before the election.
The show drew criticism from the US Center for US Rights and the then presidening candidate Donald Trump for broadcasting CBS of part of Harris’s answer to a question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in “60 minutes” and another part of her answer to the same question in “confront the nation”.
Trump has sued CBS for $ 20 billion, claiming that “60 minutes” fraudulently edited the interview in order to interfere with the elections, which he easily won over the vice president.
CBS, which is owned by Paramount Global, said that in a public appearance on Tuesday that “transcript footage and useless interview demonstrate that CBS engaged in ordinary editorial staff practices, deciding what material from a long sitting interview would be broadcast in a limited television format.”
The network called for FCC to cease the “without delay” complaint.
But FCC leader Brendan Carr quickly pushed the idea, telling Reuters on Tuesday that there is still an ongoing investigation.
“We’re not close to my opinion with the position of rejecting that complaint at this point,” he said.
Paramount is seeking FCC approval for a coupling of $ 8.4 billion with Skydance Media – an agreement that the interested parties of Paramount Shari Redstone had hoped it would have already been closed.
CBS mentioned a small portion of conservative advocacy groups that announced last week that any FCC action against CBS “would violate the first speech and cold speech, all creating the prospect that the commission would serve as the referee of acceptable journalism that goes ahead.”
The Tiffany Network said the lawsuit aims to turn “FCC into a full censorship of content” which will result in an unconstitutional role and an impossible for the agency.
FCC is currently considering if the “60 minutes” transmission violates the rules of “news distortion”. Although the agency is forbidden to censor or violate the first rights of media change, the broadcasters cannot deliberately distort the news.
The American Union of Civil Freedoms said that there was no basis for investigating, Reuters reported. “To conduct an investigation into the news distortion without a piece of evidence seems to intend to harass CBS and soothe those who present disregarded views,” the group said.
According to Carr, FCC returned complaints about “60 minutes” interview with Harris, as well as complaints about how ABC News Disney moderated pre-election TV between then President Joe Biden and Trump. He also returned complaints against Comcast’s NBC for allowing Harris to appear on “Saturday Night Live” just before the election.
Carr’s predecessor, Jessica Rosenworcel, had initially rejected those complaints in January.
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