CBS is calling out the FCC’s inquiry into how 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris as inappropriate for the federal agency, while warning that any government sanction against the network “would open the door to regular and repeated second guessing of broadcasters’ editorial judgments across the ideological spectrum.” The network’s remarks were made […]CBS is calling out the FCC’s inquiry into how 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris as inappropriate for the federal agency, while warning that any government sanction against the network “would open the door to regular and repeated second guessing of broadcasters’ editorial judgments across the ideological spectrum.” The network’s remarks were made
CBS is calling out the FCC‘s inquiry into how 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris as inappropriate for the federal agency, while warning that any government sanction against the network “would open the door to regular and repeated second guessing of broadcasters’ editorial judgments across the ideological spectrum.”
The network’s remarks were made in a filing with the FCC.
A conservative group, the Center for American Rights, filed a complaint against the network last October, claiming that the network was being deceptive in the way that it edited the interview.
In response to an FCC inquiry, 60 Minutes released the unedited transcript of the interview, and said that it proved that the show engaged in routine editing practices. But FCC Chairman Brendan Carr kept the proceedings alive, setting it up for a public comment period.
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“The Complaint filed against CBS for ‘news distortion’ envisions a less free world in which the federal government becomes a roving censor—one that second guesses and even punishes specific editorial decisions that are an essential part of producing news programming,” CBS said in the filing, authored by parent Paramount Global’s representatives in Washington.
The Center for American Rights alleged that the network violated the FCC’s “news distortion” policy, in which the agency investigates whether a news report “was deliberately intended to mislead viewers or listeners.” But the FCC acknowledges that its authority is narrow, and that the agency “is prohibited by law from engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press.”
CBS said in its filing that the complaint “not only ignores the narrowness of the Commission’s rarely invoked and constitutionally suspect ‘news distortion’ policy; it also asks the Commission to violate its duties under the U.S. Constitution, along with multiple statutory authorities.”
In fact, the network challenged the constitutionality of the policy itself, writing that it stems from an era on the 1940s and 50s when means communications were scarce. The network notes that “any individual or organization with a smartphone can create and disseminate content expressing any and all viewpoints to a potential audience of many millions of people. In this dramatically changed media landscape, the federal government has no lawful role in policing the editorial decisions of broadcast news outlets.”
In an Oct. 7 election special. 60 Minutes aired an interview with Harris in which she is shown giving a different answer to a question than one that was shown on a Face the Nation preview for the broadcast.
At one point in the interview, correspondent Bill Whitaker asked Harris why Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not listening to the Biden administration.
Harris answered, “Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. And we’re not going to stop doing that. We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
Harris was shown giving the first part of her answer on Face the Nation, and the second part on 60 Minutes.
CBS said that the different answers were due to time constraints.
Nevertheless, Donald Trump sued CBS over the 60 Minutes interview under Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and he is now seeking $20 billion in damages. His lawsuit has created consternation in the network news division, as Paramount Global representatives and Trump’s legal team have engaged in settlement talks. Although many legal observers and the National Association of Broadcasters see the lawsuit as frivolous, Paramount Global is seeking federal regulatory approval of its acquisition by Skydance.
The previous FCC chair, Jessica Rosenworcel, dismissed the news distortion complaint in January, just days before she left the agency. But shortly after Trump took office and he became FCC chair, Carr revived it.
In the filing, CBS called into question even launching an inquiry.
“As the Supreme Court has observed, ‘regulation of speech that is motivated by nothing more than a desire to curtail expression of a particular point of view on controversial issues of general interest is the purest example of a ‘law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.’ Indeed, the mere investigation of allegations premised on disputes over editorial judgments constitutes ‘a venture into a quagmire inappropriate for’ a government agency like the Commission—though it is not too late for the Commission to turn back by promptly closing this proceeding.”
More to come.
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