News/Commentary

Pressure on CBS intensifies to release the ’60 Minutes’ transcript

October 14, 2024 | | Print Article

CBS News remains under fire over the selective editing of last week’s 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Free Press editor Bari Weiss called on the news magazine to “release the unedited transcript of the Kamala Harris interview,” linking to an editorial from the outlet questioning if the network is “guilty of journalistic malpractice.”

CBS News has been “at the center of outrage,” as reported by Fox News after it aired an edited clip of Harris during its primetime 60 Minutes election special Monday “that was different from a preview of the unflattering exchange she had with [host Bill] Whitaker that was widely panned by critics.”

Harris was responding to a question about whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was listening to the Biden-Harris administration, and while her answer equated to a confusing word salad, CBS cleaned it up through editing before airing the interview on Monday. The full interview reportedly took 45 minutes, but the broadcast was only 20 minutes.

“The edit suggests a possible violation of the CBS News standards guide, which states that ‘answers to different questions may not be combined to give the impression of one continuous response.’ It goes on to say: ‘We cannot create an answer merely because we wish the subject had said it better,’ and that journalists should ‘always edit interviews in a straightforward manner to preserve the sense of the interview,” the Free Press editorial said. “You don’t need to be a broadcast journalist to understand why these are important rules. Excessive editing distorts reality — which is the opposite of what good journalism is supposed to do.”

“Given the stakes here — a rare interview with a presidential candidate a month before a very close election — you would think CBS would do the same. But no transcript has been forthcoming,” the outlet added.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressed his agreement for the transcript to be released in an online post.

“Totally agree that Vice President Kamala Harris’ 60 Minutes interview transcript should be released in its entirety. The transcript will speak for itself and there is no reason not to clear the air. The idea that [Harris’s] comments may have been edited in a favorable way needs to be dealt with quickly.”

Graham was far from alone in calling for CBS News to man up and release the transcript… here’s a quick sampling of responses, as seen on X:

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Tom Tillison
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