After the Center for American Rights filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, arguing CBS News engaged in "significant and intentional news distortion" for editing an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington told Newsmax that such complaints seldom go anywhere.
During an appearance on "Rob Schmitt Tonight," Simington said, "All we have so far is a complaint. But it's interesting, because news distortion complaints are very rarely fruitful. The last one I can find that went to trial was in the late 1990s. So usually you can just dismiss them out of hand.
"Usually when people complain about news distortion, what they're really complaining about is that they don't like the candidate, they don't like the coverage, they don't like the story. They disagree with the facts presented.
"But this is a little bit more of an interesting one, because on the one hand, on the one hand with with a news distortion claim ... we agree, right, that it's not in the public interest. You have to use the airwaves in the public interest."
"We agree that it's that rigging or slanting the news is against it. But however, we also respect the First Amendment. So that means the FCC doesn't go around, unlike media regulators in other countries, deciding what's true and what's false."
The program has been accused of editing Harris' response to a question about Israel, with discrepancies between the broadcast version and a promotional clip that appeared on "Face the Nation" the previous day.
In the promo, Harris gave a lengthy, vague response; but on "60 Minutes" her answer appeared more concise and direct. This has led critics, including former President Donald Trump, to accuse CBS News of manipulating the interview to make Harris look better.
The Center for American Rights argues the move violated FCC regulations. The complaint asks that the FCC "direct CBS to release the complete transcript of the Vice President's interview with 'Sixty Minutes.'"
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