CBS’s 60 Minutes Urged to Release Transcripts for Future Political Interviews

The Center for American Rights, a nonprofit, public-interest law firm with ties to conservative groups, said the Federal Communications Commission should require CBS to “promptly release complete transcripts of all interviews with sitting public officials and candidates,” as it has done selectively in the past. Doing so would provide the opportunity to ensure “transparency and accountability to the public interest,” the group said in comments to be filed to the FCC on Monday. The move would also align with the practices of CBS’ Face the Nation, the group said.

The center filed a complaint with the FCC in October over the network’s treatment of an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, concerning two apparently different answers she gave to the same question. Then-FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel dismissed the complaint during one of her last days at the agency under the Biden administration. The new chairman, Brendan Carr, revived the accusations.

Carr has said he’d probe CBS’s editing of the interview in the context of CBS parent company Paramount Global’s proposed merger with Skydance Media, which must receive FCC approval. The FCC probe is also taking place against the backdrop of a $20 billion-lawsuit President Donald Trump has filed against CBS over the Harris interview. CBS and Trump’s lawyers are engaged in settlement talks.  

In the forthcoming filing, as part of the public comment period, the Center for American Rights argues that the First Amendment can’t act as a broad shield for networks that willfully take news content out of context, meaning it would be appropriate for the FCC to intervene in the CBS case. As part of the Skydance-Paramount merger conditions, the center has also suggested CBS add executive “viewpoint diversity,” hire a nonpartisan ombudsman to handle news bias complaints, and recruit employees from “a broader range of diverse backgrounds, including people from rural communities, people of faith, and conservatives.”

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