MRC President Brent Bozell has put CBS News on notice in a letter calling for the outlet to confirm whether or not it coordinated with Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign when it edited her 60 Minutes interview.
On Oct. 6, CBS News’s Face the Nation previewed a 60 Minutes interview with Harris during which she was asked about whether Israel is conducting its war the way she wants it to. As recounted by Bozell, her “rambling response to a direct question” showed in the Face the Nation snippet received an avalanche of criticism on social media only to be edited out of the 60 Minutes interview and replaced with a “different, more cogent answer to the same question.” MRC’s president went on to urge CBS to attempt to repair the trust it broke with the American people, writing: “There is only one way for CBS to prove its innocence, and that is through simple transparency.”
Bozell’s letter to Paramount Global Co-CEO George Cheeks specifically asked the legacy media outlet to “release the full, unedited video of Harris’s interview with [Bill] Whitaker along with the unedited transcript.” In addition, the MRC president stressed the importance of CBS revealing whether it coordinated with the Harris campaign. He wrote:
“CBS needs to confirm whether anyone at your organization directly communicated with the Harris campaign after the interview regarding potential edits. “If there were such communications, CBS must work to regain the public’s trust and release all records regarding these communications, including emails, phone transcripts, video recordings and personal notes.”
Bozell also emphasized the impact that CBS News’s dubious editing had on public trust. “CBS has been slammed in the court of public opinion, and justifiably so. Millions have seen this as a blatant attempt by CBS to support the Harris presidential campaign,” he wrote."CBS has denied this, but the public is not buying it.”
CBS News waited 14 days to respond to the scandal, brushing off the obviously edited 60 Minutes interview as standard journalistic practice done for the sake of brevity.
Bozell, however, reminded the outlet that waiting this out only makes the situation appear worse than it already is. “Each day these requests go ignored, the belief that CBS/Paramount is deliberately hiding incriminating evidence and colluding with the Harris campaign only grows,” he added.
The MRC president concluded by acknowledging that while his requests will not be easy for CBS News to fulfill, they are vitally necessary for the sake of the outlet’s future: “It is understandable that complying with these requests will be painful for CBS/Paramount, especially after such a significant scandal. However, such actions are necessary if your organization hopes to regain the trust of the American people.”
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