CBS urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Monday to dismiss a complaint regarding a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, arguing that the agency has no legal authority to oversee editorial decisions in broadcast journalism.
CBS, a subsidiary of Paramount Global, stated that penalizing the network over the interview would be a clear violation of the First Amendment by allowing the government to override the editorial judgment of CBS and its journalists.
The complaint claims that the interview breached the FCC’s “news distortion” rules, pointing to differences between Harris’s responses aired on “Face the Nation” and “60 Minutes.”
“CBS engaged in ordinary editorial decision-making that involved no ‘distortion’,” the company said, adding that the FCC complaint “completely disregards both the letter and the spirit of the Commission’s news distortion policy.”
CBS provided the FCC with the unredacted video and transcript, which both the agency and the broadcaster made public.
Last month, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, accused the Republican-led agency of using reinstated complaints to pressure major U.S. broadcasters. She argued that the “60 Minutes” interview did not violate FCC rules and criticized the agency for improperly reviving complaints against Walt Disney’s ABC and Comcast’s NBC.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr has not commented on the matter. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has sued CBS for $20 billion over the broadcast, with media reports indicating that Paramount representatives are in settlement talks.
Paramount is also seeking FCC approval for an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media.
Last month, the FCC reinstated complaints about the “60 Minutes” interview with Harris, ABC News’ handling of the pre-election debate between then-President Joe Biden and Trump, and NBC’s decision to feature Harris on “Saturday Night Live” shortly before the election she lost to Trump. The previous FCC chair had dismissed these complaints.
