One member of the Federal Communications Commission believes that the FCC should take a close look at a complaint that CBS crossed regulatory lines in its handling of a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
As noted by the Washington Examiner, in the final interview, Harris answered a question about American-Israeli relations by saying, “We are not gonna stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
A clip that aired prior to the full interview showed her answering the question this way: “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.”
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This is not a person who is competent enough to be president of the United States. https://t.co/zwXZlPchzP
— JD Vance (@JDVance) October 7, 2024
The Center for American Rights filed a formal complaint with the FCC, alleging that the edits from CBS “amount to deliberate news distortion — a violation of FCC rules governing broadcasters’ public interest obligations,” according to Fox News.
“This is about the public’s trust in the media on critical issues of national security and international relations during one of the most consequential elections of our time,” CAR President Daniel Suhr said in a statement.
“When broadcasters manipulate interviews and distort reality, it undermines democracy itself. The FCC must act swiftly to restore public confidence in our news media,” he said.
“The need for the Commission’s action is strengthened by CBS’ refusal thus far to release the transcript, which it has done in similar interviews in the past,” the complaint said.
Should the FCC punish CBS?
FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said the FCC might review the complaint.
“This complaint might come before the commission for adjudication,” Simington said, according to Fox News.
“I don’t think it would be wrong at all for the Commission to reach the conclusion that this matter is something that we should look into further,” Simington said.
“The commission acts on complaints about distortion, not complaints about editorial positions. And so, what this claim is alleging is that an act of distortion took place,” he said.
Simington noted that“the Commission has certainly contemplated the possibility of distortionary reporting taking place via splicing.”
If social media platforms have to answer to Congress for election interference, so should CBS News if it deceptively edited Kamala Harris’ 60 Minutes interview. pic.twitter.com/o5k3d9B91k
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) October 11, 2024
“That’s one reason I don’t think that this complaint is facially ridiculous, and it would not be inappropriate for the commission to take it up,” he said.
“The reason that we care about news distortion at all at the FCC and the reason that we’re willing to explore this possibility, even conceptually, given the strong First Amendment protections for broadcasters’ speech, is precisely because of this concern that we don’t want the public to be misled,” said Simington, who was appointed by former President Trump in 2020.
“I think everyone agrees that deliberately misleading the public is a bad idea. And if there’s some possibility that that’s what took place here, then obviously we should all be upset because people go to the news in order to learn about things that they would never be able to learn about themselves,” Simington said.
“In other words, going to the news is an act of extending trust. Now, the thing about trust is that once it’s lost, it’s very difficult to regain,” he said.
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