Special Poll
On Thursday, President Trump called for the immediate cancellation of CBS’s “60 Minutes” following the release of a transcript from an interview with former Vice President Harris that aired last fall. This release comes amid a federal investigation into the broadcast. According to Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform, he believes that the program misled the public by editing the interview in a way that has never before been witnessed to such an extent. He claims that the network completely removed what he describes as Kamala Harris’s “horrible election changing answers” and replaced them with entirely different responses drawn from another portion of the same interview.
For many years, Trump and his supporters have contended that the editing of Harris’s interview was intended to cast her in a better light. In response to these allegations, “60 Minutes” has provided a full, unedited transcript of the interview to the FCC and made it available online. The network asserts that the transcript confirms what it has consistently maintained—that the broadcast was neither doctored nor deceptive.
According to “60 Minutes,” editing interviews is a common practice among journalists, done to ensure clarity, adhere to time constraints, or maintain viewer engagement. They maintain that every edit is made in pursuit of the truth and with the goal of delivering the most informative content possible, despite the limitations imposed by broadcast television.
In a separate legal move, Trump has filed a lawsuit against CBS News for $10 billion. In the suit, he alleges that the network engaged in partisan and unlawful activities, interfering with elections and misleading voters through significant distortions in its coverage.
This controversy is just the latest in a long history of disputes over media practices. Trump and his allies, including some at the FCC, have repeatedly argued that major news outlets should face closer scrutiny—and even risk losing their broadcast licenses—if their coverage is deemed unfair. For many over 50 who have witnessed decades of evolving media practices, this situation is a reminder of the ongoing debates over editorial standards and the influence of television journalism on public perception.