CBS has finally released the full transcript of the interview with Kamala Harris that 60 Minutes aired on October 7, which provoked a lawsuit that Donald Trump filed against the network a few weeks later. The same interview is also the focus of an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which has the power to nix a pending merger between Paramount, the network's owner, and Skydance Media by declining to approve the transfer of broadcast licenses.
After the interview aired, Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee facing off against Harris in the 2024 election, described it as "Election Interference," an "UNPRECEDENTED SCANDAL," and "a giant Fake News Scam" that was "totally illegal." By editing the interview to make Harris "look better," he said, CBS had committed an offense so egregious that the FCC should "TAKE AWAY THE CBS LICENSE" (by which he presumably meant the broadcast licenses held by CBS-owned stations). The transcript confirms what you may have suspected: Trump's characterization of the interview is completely bonkers. It is Trump, not CBS, who is perpetrating "a giant Fake News Scam."
It was already clear that the editing of the interview did not constitute consumer fraud, as Trump alleges in his lawsuit, or "broadcast news distortion"—the claim that the FCC is considering. But the transcript also makes it clear, beyond any serious dispute, that CBS did not commit any journalistic sins when it presented an edited version of Harris' response to a question about Israel.
