The Media Research Center’s record of obsessing over Kamala Harris’ media interviews continued with her appearance on “60 Minutes.” Jorge Bonilla actually praised the interviewer’s work in an Oct. 7 post because he thought Harris slipped up:
The 60 Minutes interview was supposed to be a cornerstone of Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s much-ballyhooed “Media Blitz”, featuring such tough interviews as The View, Howard Stern, Stephen Colbert, and the Call Her Daddy podcast. Instead, it may have turned out to be a millstone.
Here CBS’s Bill Whitaker performed a journalism- a practice that seems archaic these days. There were questions asked, and the expectation that these questions would be met with an answer.
The interview began with a question on October 7th, and America’s relationship with Israel. Harris tries to split the baby by calling for a ceasefire and emphasizing America’s relationship with Israel but also distancing herself from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
[…]Several things stick out from this interview: other than being perhaps a bit too chummy with Walz, Whitaker did his job. He pressed Harris on a number of issues in a way that the Regime Media had not done over the course of this compressed campaign. Harris, on the other hand, showed why the Regime Media failed by allowing her to run a Plexiglass Basement campaign until a month before the election. Her non-answers on her economic proposals and on immigration expose her. Her continued bookings on friendly outlets where she is guaranteed to get a tongue bath expose everyone else.
In an Oct. 9 post, Tim Graham joined with Fox News to work as the Trump Regime Media to hype questions about an edit in the interview and push a conspiracy theory:
Brian Flood and David Rutz at FoxNews.com reported that CBS aired two different answers to the same question on Israel in its 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. First they aired a word-salad answer on Sunday’s Face the Nation. But when the interview aired on Monday night, the answer was entirely different.
[…]Donald Trump’s campaign demanded CBS release a full transcript of the interview. Press aide Karoline Leavitt: “Why did 60 Minutes choose not to air Kamala’s full word salad, and what else did they choose not to air? The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript from Kamala’s sit-down interview. We call upon 60 Minutes and CBS to release it. What do they, and Kamala, have to hide?”
Graham pushed the conspiracy narrative again in his Oct. 11 podcast:
The toughest questions she faced came from CBS on 60 Minutes, and then it turned out that CBS manipulated their Kamala interview. A word-salad answer on an Israel question was previewed on Face the Nation on Sunday. But when the 60 Minutes special aired on Monday, there was a firmer Kamala answer. Where did that come from? Donald Trump, as well as MRC founder Brent Bozell have demanded CBS release the full transcript.
Days later, the right-wing conspiracy noise machine forced CBS to respond, and Graham spent an Oct. 21 post deeming it insufficient, deeming without evidence the interview edits to be “sleazy”:
CBS News put out a statement of self-defense on Sunday night about the obvious differences in editing of their Kamala Harris interview. The word salad aired in a Face The Nation promo didn’t match the shorter, more coherent answer that aired the next night on a 60 Minutes special.
It began like a PolitiFact evaluation: “Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false.”
If the two different answers aren’t “deceitful,” they’re sneaky. The one in the program clearly makes Harris sound more in command of the English language than the larger answer did.
CBS insisted it was “Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response.” But CBS still refuses to release the full transcript (or partial transcript of this specific question and answer), which can only arouse suspicion. Let’s just guess they cued her up for a second try at the answer.
Graham hyped it again in his Oct. 22 podcast:
On Sunday night, the the 60 Minutes team at CBS News put out a statement of self-defense about their sneaky or sleazy editing of their Kamala Harris interview special. The word salad aired in a Face The Nation promo didn’t match the more coherent answer that aired the next night.
CBS claimed “Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false.” But CBS News has yet to release an unedited video or full transcript of the interview, which would put these matters to rest. The radioactive fact that they won’t simply release the full reality here signals that it’s not going to make either CBS or Kamala look good.
In his “Reliable Sources” newsletter, Brian Stelter’s headline was “60 Minutes refutes Trump.” Rebut, maybe, but not refute. Stelter wrote: “For a long while CBS declined to comment on the dispute, but last night CBS responded to his hot air with a cool-headed statement. The network did not admit to any screwup. Trump will surely keep talking about this on the trail since it plays into they’re-all-out-to-get-us narrative.” So CBS isn’t out to beat Trump and elect Harris?
Graham’s boss joined the echo chamber (while already in the Fox echo chamber) in an Oct. 22 post:
MRC founder and president Brent Bozell appeared on Monday night on the Fox Business program Evening Edit to discuss CBS refusing to release a transcript of its deceptively edited Kamala Harris interview in a Monday night 60 Minutes election special.
First, the CBS Sunday interview show Face The Nation aired a word-salad answer from Kamala on Israel. Then the Monday night special aired a much briefer, more coherent answer.
Fox host Liz McDonald asked “Who was it edited for? Was it edited for the viewer, or Kamala? And how about instead of releasing statements, why won’t they release the full transcript and footage?”
Bozell agreed: “So what’s going on behind the scenes at CBS? Who made the decision to edit it one way and then re-edit it another way after a backlash? Was it the staff that did it? Did the Kamala Harris campaign call them and say ‘that’s not what we want. We want you to air another part.’ We don’t know. Release the transcript.”
The same day, Craig Bannister was let out of the ruined remains of what was the MRC’s “news” division to peddle a dubious poll:
Nine in ten voters say CBS should release the full transcript of its October 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris which the network edited before airing in an apparent attempt to present Harris’s comments in an unrealistically favorable manner.
CBS issued a statement this week denying allegations that it deceitfully edited Harris’ answers to questions – but, it obdurately continues to refuse to release the full video and transcript of the interview.
By releasing the full transcript of the October 7, 2024 interview, CBS would enable the public to judge whether or not the edits made before airing were biased and made to dishonestly portray Democrat Presidential Candidate Harris’s remarks.
And, Americans overwhelmingly do want to see for themselves what actually took place in the CBS interview, a CAPS/Harris survey finds.
Graham lashed out anew at “60 Minutes” in his Oct. 23 column:
On October 20, the 60 Minutes squad put out a statement dismissing Donald Trump’s accusations of manipulative editing in their Kamala Harris interview as “false.” But they offered no evidence in support of their claims.
Everyone can see the divergence between the Harris word salad that appeared in a promo on Face the Nation and the shorter, more coherent answer on their election special. But they refuse to release a transcript to explain themselves. It’s always maddening when the arrogant journalists who claim they hold government accountable refuse to be accountable.
Nobody in TV news has been more overpraised than 60 Minutes. This horde of urbane leftist snobs has concocted syrupy minutes for Democrats (especially Barack Obama) and salty minutes for Republicans (especially Trump).
Geoffrey Dickens echoed the narrative in a post the same day: “On October 20 CBS News issued a defensive statement on their sleazy edit of their 60 Minutes interview with the Vice President, insisting they did nothing wrong. But their deceptive cutting up of video — to make Kamala Harris look better — isn’t the only way they’ve been aiding the Harris-Walz campaign. Five brand new Harris controversies have unfolded in October which CBS News has completely ignored.”
By contrast, when the MRC’s favorite right-wing TV channel did something similar for the MRC’s favorite presidential candidate, it was silent. As an actual media outlet documented:
The Fox News Channel’s recent segment about Donald Trump’s “surprise” visit to a barbershop in the Bronx resembled a campaign ad for the former president’s reelection.
Trump was seen taking questions and making small talk with Black and Hispanic barbershop customers and workers, some of whom were wearing “Make Barbers Great Again” shirts. The visit was part of “Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones’ ongoing barbershop interview series.
But the version of the visit shown on television was, to borrow a hairstyle metaphor, a crop cut. Fox edited out many of Trump’s rambling comments and false claims. Participants had to repeatedly follow up when Trump meandered away from the original point of their questions.
CNN reviewed a more complete video of the barbershop visit that was uploaded to Instagram on the day of Trump’s appearance in the Bronx and compared it to the segments that were shown on “Fox & Friends” on Monday.
Fox’s edits omitted numerous Trump tangents and exaggerations – a striking decision given Trump’s recent attacks on CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” for editing an interview with his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, earlier this month.
The MRC completely censored mention of this edit (which one might call “sleazy”) — heck, it didn’t even mention the event at all — and it certainly didn’t trot out Bozell to demand that Fox News release a full transcript of the entire interview.
That’s yet another reminder that the MRC cares nothing about “media research” and everything about being Regime Media for Trump.