The “disinformation” authorities are the true thieves this election, innocent of massaging, distorting, and twisting information to fit their true objective — stopping Donald Trump and electing Kamala Harris.  ,
As Election Evening approaches, more and more Americans are aware that the media outlets that once provided goal news have splintered that belief with regular acts of literary malpractice.  ,
Case in point, the soft editing job CBS News did in a “60 Minutes” discussion earlier this month with the vice president, the Democratic Party’s alternative presidential candidate.  ,
The Oct. 6 episode of the network’s” Face the Nation” used a tape to promote that night’s “60 Minutes” interview with Harris in which the vice president offered her regular expression salad response to correspondent Bill Whitaker’s issue about U. S. plan on Israel and the war in Gaza.  ,
While we provide military aid to Israel with billions of dollars, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be following his own course, Whitaker said. ” The Biden-Harris administration has pressed him to agree to a ceasefire, he’s resisted. You urged him not to go into Lebanon, he went in anyway. He has promised to pay for the missile attack, which has the power to make the conflict even more potent. Does the U. S. have no sway over Prime Minister Netanyahu”?
The Democrats ‘ presidential candidate responded in typical Kamala nonsense, saying,” Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.”
But that butchered bit of syntax did n’t show up in the “60 Minutes” interview that night. Instead, the segment featured a much clearer, coherent answer to the same question — what appeared to be a refined edit of a longer, meandering , response.
“60 Minutes” correspondent Jon Wertheim defended the doctoring this week during an interview on the ,” Don’t@Me with Dan Dakich” sports podcast on OutKick .com.
” Things are edited in every story”, said Wertheim, who also serves as senior correspondent for Sports Illustrated, which has had its own troubles, including credibility issues.  ,” You do these interviews, and ‘ 60 Minutes ‘ segments ]are ] about 13 minutes and 10 seconds, right”? Wertheim said on the podcast” You spend hours, sometimes days and days, with the subject and, you know, you boil it down to 13 minutes”.
Americans are n’t buying it.
According to a new Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, 85 percent of respondents think CBS should publish the entire transcript of the Whitaker-Harris conversation. The transcript of the edited interview has been made available by CBS.  ,
” Defies Democracy Itself”
The Center for American Rights, a public interest law firm with roots in Chicago, has lodged a complaint with the FCC, requesting that CBS release the unaltered transcript of” to set the record straight.”  ,
” This is n’t just about one interview or one network”, Daniel Suhr, president of the Center for American Rights, said in a statement. During one of the most important elections of our time, this is about the public’s trust in the media regarding pressing issues of national security and international relations.
” Democracy itself is undermined by broadcasters ‘ manipulation of interviews and distortions of reality. Suhr added that the FCC must act quickly to restore public confidence in our news media.  ,
The complaint faces some tough sledding. FCC Chairwoman , Jessica Rosenworcel criticized Trump’s request for CBS to lose its license earlier this week, claiming that the commission “does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.”
The former President’s repeated attacks on broadcasters may now be well known, but Rosenworcel argued that these threats to free speech are serious and should not be ignored. ” As I’ve said before, the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy”.
Rosenworcel’s nomination as FCC chairwoman in 2021 sparked concerns that the agency would be moving in a” significantly more liberal direction” thanks to President Joe Biden’s nomination. President Barack Obama first appoints her as a commissioner in 2012, but Trump does so once more in 2017.  ,
‘ News Distortion’ ,
The Democratic chairwoman may claim to be fighting for press freedom, but FCC precedent states that “rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest.”
In a revised 2021 report titled” The Public and Broadcasting,” the FCC states that” the Commission will investigate a station for news distortion if it receives documented evidence of rigging or slanting, such as testimony or other documentation, from individuals with direct personal knowledge that a licensee or its management engaged in the intentional falsification of the news. ” Preferentially worrying would be evidence of the direction station management has given employees to falsify the news.”
The Center for American Rights claims that “CBS crosses a line when its production reaches the point where its answer becomes so transformative that it is a fundamentally different answer, despite news organizations having the right to edit their content as they see fit,” contrary to what is practiced for news magazine formats like “60 Minutes.”
The filing states that” this complaint concerns an act of significant and substantial news alteration” that was carried out in the middle of a contentious presidential campaign. Additionally, this instance provides the clear external evidence of outtakes required for this Commission to take action.
‘ Myopic Zeal ‘ ,
Reports that CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon cut checks worth more than$ 6, 000 to Democrats during the 2020 election only raise concerns about bias. McMahon donated$ 6,100 to the Biden-Harris campaign and Democratic Party platforms, according to documents obtained by The Telegraph’s first report with the Federal Election Commission. Interesting: While employees at CBS News are prohibited from making donations to political parties, McMahon made her contributions while working for ABC, a CBS News affiliate.  ,
The Center for American Rights complained to the FCC and the FEC alleging that ABC News and its anchors displayed” clear sponsor favoritism” for Harris during her early September debate with Trump, according to The Federalist. In its biased production, the network and its moderators allegedly broke campaign finance and broadcast laws, including ABC’s decision to fact check Trump while refusing to do the same for Harris.  ,
CBS News has previously gone down the credibility cliff. The network’s Dan Rather debacle of 2004 instantly comes to mind. The disgraced former news anchor’s phony report on then-President George W. Bush’s National Guard Service record — on “60 Minutes” — should have been a warning to corporate media about the dangers of “myopic zeal” in the abusive, partisan journalism. Instead, they stepped up their animosity toward conservatives and their romantic relationship with liberals.  ,
In 2007, CBS News was forced to apologize after its high-priced evening news anchor, Katie Couric, was caught in a plagiarism scandal. Couric’s alleged personal essay on Katie’s Notebook appeared in a Wall Street Journal column at the time, according to the Guardian. In 2021, a “60 Minutes” hit piece claiming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ‘ lucrative agreement with the chain of supermarkets Publix to give the Covid vaccine to a generous campaign donor also attracted widespread criticism.  ,
” In the story, there was a direct line between the campaign contribution and the rewarding]of the Publix vaccine contract]. And they never proved that”, said Al Tompkins, a senior faculty member at the Poynter Institute in a Politifact piece on the “60 Minutes” report. ” I think they owe it to everybody — they owe it to the governor, they owe it to Publix, they owe it to the public — to explain to us how they came to that conclusion”.
A CBS News official referred The Federalist to Elita Fielder Adjei, vice president of communications for CBS Stations, She did not return The Federalist’s request for comment.  ,
Matt Kittle covers The Federalist’s senior elections coverage. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.