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Former President Donald Trump is going after what he considers to be “fake news” as he has announced a lawsuit against CBS.
He is suing the network for $10 million after it showed an edited answer of Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris on the war between Israel and Hamas.
Interviewer Bill Whitaker asked the vice president if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “listening” to the administration of President Joe Biden and Harris.
Her unedited answer was, “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.”
But in the answer that aired on the show, she somehow said, “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.”
CBS just released a statement on this but they won’t release the full transcript.
I just went back and looked at the segment they previewed on October 6th. Check out the word salad about ballistic missiles they cut out of the answer before the one that they replaced… pic.twitter.com/1pKllTyP75
— MAZE (@mazemoore) October 21, 2024
CBS said it would not release a full transcript of the vice president’s answer.
“Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false,” it said.
“60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment,” the network said.
“Remember, Mr. Trump pulled out of his interview with 60 Minutes and the vice president participated,” it said.
“Our long-standing invitation to former President Trump remains open. 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,” it said.
Attorneys for the former president said in its lawsuit that “President Trump brings this action to redress the immense harm caused to him, to his campaign, and to tens of millions of citizens in Texas and across America by CBS’s deceptive broadcasting conduct,” Fox News reported.
“To paper over Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news,” the lawsuit said.
“Due to CBS’ actions, the public could not distinguish which Kamala they saw in the Interview: the candidate or the actual puppet of a behind-the-scenes editor,” it said.
The former president is demanding $10 billion in damages and a jury trial for “CBS’ alleged “ongoing false, misleading, and deceptive acts; the attorneys’ fees and costs associated with this action; and such other relief as the court deems just and proper.”
CBS has also been hit with an FCC investigation for the editing.
FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said that the commission often receives frivolous complaints but said that this complaint has merit because the two versions are substantially different from each other.
“The FCC does not regulate, or really even respond to, allegations of politically unfavorable coverage or legitimate editorial discretion,” he said to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “The recent complaint regarding WCBS-TV raises a fully different set of issues regarding whether or not coverage was intentionally distorted: reporting that something was said in response to a question that literally was not. I don’t know whether that’s true, but it’s a different issue.”
But someone familiar with the investigation told the DCNF that the Democratic chair of the commission, Jessica Rosenworcel, is not likely to pursue the allegation 18 days before the presidential election.
