By Katherine Tinsley
8:59am PST, Feb 7, 2025
Trump criticized
60 Minutes for editing their interview with Vice President
Kamala Harris after the real estate tycoon refused to be featured on the show.
When asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump took issue with the difference in Harris' answers on CBS's
Face the Nation and
60 Minutes.
"This instrument can teach. It can illuminate," Tapper said. "Yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it's nothing but wires and lights in a box."
"She may as well take the wires and lights and the box and sell them for parts," Tapper said, referring to Paramount Global chair
Shari Redstone.
Trump often calls outlets that disagree with him "fake news," but using his political power to undermine journalists could greatly impact the industry.
"The suit is widely regarded by legal and first amendment experts, as well as one put it, quote, a frivolous and dangerous attempt by a politician to control the news media," Tapper stated.
"Fox had every right to make that edit," Tapper said in defense of CBS while mentioning Trump's time on the network.
Recently, the FCC released the transcripts from the full interview with Harris, but Tapper noted that the Republican's appearance on Fox News was also tweaked for television.
"Now, did that edit make Trump look more decisive, less equivocating? Equivocating? Did it make Trump, therefore, look better? Yep," Tapper stated.
"Was that why Fox did it? I have no idea. Maybe they just had some timing issues," he explained. "Either way, it's Fox's right to do it just as it was Fox's right to do it when they had Trump's surprise visit to a Bronx barber shop on air, which they also cut down significantly."
"And, coincidentally or not, flatteringly Fox had the right to do it — and not just because cable and broadcast networks have different rules," he added.
Trump's feud with the media organization is now threatening their upcoming business plan.
"Now, the
60 Minutes editing case would almost certainly fail spectacularly in court, according to legal experts," the anchor said.
"But Paramount Global, which owns CBS News, is currently trying to merge with Skydance Media," Tapper explained. "And in order to do that, Paramount will need the approval of the Trump administration, specifically, the FCC, which under its new commissioner,
Brendan Carr, has suggested that Trump's news distortion complaint will be considered by the FCC before any merger can be approved."
Tapper urged the competing network not to please Trump.
According to Tapper, choosing to "settle the suit would be a white flag of surrender… the network of [veteran broadcaster] Edward R. Murrow… saying, we will not speak truth to power. We will acquiesce to power at the expense of truth."
According to Tapper, Trump's tension with Paramount could escalate.
"You live long enough and you see how eroded standards that politicians think work for their side always end up being wielded against them," Tapper concluded. "And at that point, it doesn't even matter who started it. It just matters that corporations are leaning on news divisions to supplicate themselves to whomever is in power because of their bottom line and the implied threat from the government."
FCC Chair Brendan Carr will still investigate the news station.
"The FCC has had a prohibition against news distortion on our books for 50 years. It applies to broadcasters but not cable," Carr told the New York Post. "A group brought a non-frivolous complaint, so the FCC is taking the next appropriate step in adjudicating the issue."
