Nearly two weeks after 60 Minutes was caught rigging an interview to make Kamala Harris sound coherent, the disgraced outlet released a statement admitting it edited her answer.
In a promotional clip released by CBS News to promote the Harris interview, this was the sitting vice president’s disastrous answer to a question from 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker about her administration’s inability to influence Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
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.
After that clip earned wide ridicule, when the interview was broadcast on 60 Minutes, CBS News replaced the word salad. Viewers watched Kamala give a very different answer to the exact same question:
We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.
She sounds more coherent there, no question, but it is only in the first quote that she actually answers the question. The second quote comes off as more decisive, but it’s not an answer. No credible news agency would make that choice.
The uproar was instantaneous, including from the Trump campaign, who called for CBS to release an unedited transcript of the interview. An FCC complaint has since been filed (accurately) accusing CBS News of manipulating the news. Under pressure to respond, CBS finally admitted to replacing Kamala’s answer but laughably claimed there was nothing wrong with that editorial decision:
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.
So there’s an admission, only it’s couched in the hubristic bullshit of journalistic ethics.
The unrung bell in that statement remains CBS’s refusal to release an unedited transcript. Obviously, 60 Minutes wants Kamala Harris to win the election. Obviously, 60 Minutes is hoping to run out the clock to Election Day.
This is the third presidential election CBS and 60 Minutes have tried to rig.
In 2004, CBS and 60 Minutes allowed Dan Rather to report on forged documents that “proved” then-Republican President George W. Bush had gone AWOL during his time with the Texas Air National Guard.
In 2020, CBS and 60 Minutes lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop being a product of Russian disinformation during an interview with then-President Trump. CBS News has still not retracted that lie, which is why Trump wisely refused to sit down with these election riggers this year.
And now, here they go again, rigging 2024 to aid and abet Kamala Harris.
Democrats sure got it good.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
