CBS Expected to Submit Kamala Harris Interview Materials Monday Amid News Distortion Investigation, FCC Chair Says

CBS Expected to Submit Kamala Harris Interview Materials Monday Amid News Distortion Investigation, FCC Chair Says

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FCC chairman Brendan Carr said he expects CBS News to turn over its full, unedited transcript and camera feeds for former Vice President Kamala Harris’ by the end of the day Monday.

The move comes after the Center for American Rights, a conservative group that self-describes as “nonprofit, public interest law firm,” has accused New York’s WCBS-TV of “news distortion” over the “60 Minutes” interview. The complaint specifically took aim at Harris’ response regarding a question on Gaza, which was different in the final cut that aired on Oct. 7 compared to an earlier promo on “Face the Nation.”

“The policy says you can’t swap answers out to make it look like somebody said something entirely different. The classic case is if someone says yes to an answer and you splice in a no answer,” Carr told Fox News’ America’s Newsroom in an interview on Monday. “It’s usually very difficult to make out news distortion complaints, you don’t want the FCC leaning into heavily on this. But here, CBS played the same question on two different programs and clearly the words of the answers were very different. What we’ve done is we’re seeking out the transcript. It’s due today and I expect CBS to provide it by the end of the day to see what, in fact, was said as part of our own news distortion investigation.”

Brendan Carr

In his first week as FCC chair, Carr revived the complaint after it was dismissed in an eleventh-hour order by his predecessor Jessica Rosenworcel, who argued that it was “seeking to weaponize” the agency and “at odds” with the First Amendment. She warned at the time that the FCC should not be “the President’s speech police” or “journalism’s censor-in-chief.” 

In its reversal, the agency said Rosenworcel’s order was “issued prematurely based on an insufficient investigatory record for the station-specific conduct at issue” and that the complaint requires “further consideration.”

“I’m not sure how you can possibly do that without seeing the actual video to see what was the real answer. Was it edited for clarity and length, which would be fine, or there other reasons why the editing took place?,” Carr added. “We’re going to take a look at that and we’re open-minded as to potential consequences.”

Carr did not rule out releasing the transcript to the public, noting that transparency is “incredibly important.”

“I do think the American public ultimately deserve to see this for themselves,” he continued. “What’s interesting is CBS releases other transcripts. For instance, the ‘Face the Nation’ interview recently with Vice President Vance. They released the full unedited transcript there, but for some reason they have not done that here, and we’ll soon see why.”

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Carr has previously said that t

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CBS Expected to Submit Kamala Harris Interview Materials Monday Amid News Distortion Investigation, FCC Chair Says

CBS Expected to Submit Kamala Harris Interview Materials Monday Amid News Distortion Investigation, FCC Chair Says

2 minutes, 20 seconds Read

FCC chairman Brendan Carr said he expects CBS News to turn over its full, unedited transcript and camera feeds for former Vice President Kamala Harris’ by the end of the day Monday.

The move comes after the Center for American Rights, a conservative group that self-describes as “nonprofit, public interest law firm,” has accused New York’s WCBS-TV of “news distortion” over the “60 Minutes” interview. The complaint specifically took aim at Harris’ response regarding a question on Gaza, which was different in the final cut that aired on Oct. 7 compared to an earlier promo on “Face the Nation.”

“The policy says you can’t swap answers out to make it look like somebody said something entirely different. The classic case is if someone says yes to an answer and you splice in a no answer,” Carr told Fox News’ America’s Newsroom in an interview on Monday. “It’s usually very difficult to make out news distortion complaints, you don’t want the FCC leaning into heavily on this. But here, CBS played the same question on two different programs and clearly the words of the answers were very different. What we’ve done is we’re seeking out the transcript. It’s due today and I expect CBS to provide it by the end of the day to see what, in fact, was said as part of our own news distortion investigation.”

Brendan Carr

In his first week as FCC chair, Carr revived the complaint after it was dismissed in an eleventh-hour order by his predecessor Jessica Rosenworcel, who argued that it was “seeking to weaponize” the agency and “at odds” with the First Amendment. She warned at the time that the FCC should not be “the President’s speech police” or “journalism’s censor-in-chief.” 

In its reversal, the agency said Rosenworcel’s order was “issued prematurely based on an insufficient investigatory record for the station-specific conduct at issue” and that the complaint requires “further consideration.”

“I’m not sure how you can possibly do that without seeing the actual video to see what was the real answer. Was it edited for clarity and length, which would be fine, or there other reasons why the editing took place?,” Carr added. “We’re going to take a look at that and we’re open-minded as to potential consequences.”

Carr did not rule out releasing the transcript to the public, noting that transparency is “incredibly important.”

“I do think the American public ultimately deserve to see this for themselves,” he continued. “What’s interesting is CBS releases other transcripts. For instance, the ‘Face the Nation’ interview recently with Vice President Vance. They released the full unedited transcript there, but for some reason they have not done that here, and we’ll soon see why.”

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Carr has previously said that t

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