US FCC releases 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris

The United States’ Federal Communications Commission on Feb 5 released the transcript of a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice-President Kamala Harris that has been at the center of a lawsuit between CBS and President Donald Trump.

The transcript of the interview shows that Ms Harris gave a lengthy answer to a question about Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister. About 21 seconds of that answer was aired in a preview of the interview on Face The Nation. A different seven-second part of the answer aired the next day in an episode of 60 Minutes.

After the interview aired, Mr Trump sued CBS in Texas, claiming that 60 Minutes deceptively edited the interview in order to interfere with the election.

But 60 Minutes has argued that it did nothing wrong. It is common for news organisations to include an excerpt from a full interview in news articles or TV broadcasts for the sake of concision.

CBS News and the FCC on Feb 5 posted the interview transcript nearly simultaneously. In a statement posted on the CBS News website, the company said the transcript shows that the 60 Minutes broadcast “was not doctored or deceitful”.

“As the full transcript shows, we edited the interview to ensure that as much of the vice0-president’s answers to 60 Minutes’ many questions were included in our original broadcast while fairly representing those answers,” the statement added.

The FCC’s chair, Brendan Carr, had requested a transcript of the interview after a news distortion complaint was lodged with that agency. Mr Carr has said that complaint could come up in the agency’s review of a multibillion-dollar merger of Paramount, CBS’ parent company, with Skydance, a Hollywood studio backed by tech scion David Ellison.

Mr Carr said in a statement Feb 5 that the agency would seek public comment regarding the news distortion complaint, adding that “the people will have a chance to weigh in”.

Anna M Gomez, a Democratic commissioner on the FCC, said in a statement that the transcript and raw footage of the interview “provide no evidence” that CBS violated FCC rules.

“Having now seen these materials, I see no reason to continue pursuing this investigation,” Ms Gomez said. “The FCC should now move to dismiss this fishing expedition to avoid further politicizing our enforcement actions.”

Executives at Paramount have been pursuing a settlement in Mr Trump’s lawsuit, in hopes that it would improve the chances that the company could swiftly close its merger with Skydance.

Mr Trump’s lawsuit has led to angst at CBS, where many staff members believe that any settlement would be a symbolic concession to the president and an acknowledgment of wrongdoing by 60 Minutes. Bill Owens, executive producer of 60 Minutes, said Feb 3 in a meeting with staff that he would not apologise to Trump as a part of any settlement with the network.

CBS is not the only news organisation that Mr Carr has scrutinized since Inauguration Day. Last week, Mr Carr said that he had ordered the agency to investigate NPR and PBS over their use of corporate sponsorships, saying that those networks’ stations were violating rules that prohibited advertising. NYTIMES