The veteran correspondent stood at a podium honoring the man who'd walked away from the most storied newsmagazine in broadcast history. Then Scott Pelley said the quiet part out loud: the bosses crumbled.
Trump sued the network for $10 billion (later updating the suit to $20 billion) after it was made clear that the interview with Kamala Harris had been skillfully edited to paint a much better impression of Harris than the transcripts revealed.
The revelation by Pelley was made during an awards dinner, with Pelley introducing his former executive producer, Bill Owens.
Interviews are always going to be edited for the sake of time, but it has been quite clear over the last decade, at least in my opinion, that news shows like “60 Minutes” do everything they can to make Democrats look good and Republicans look bad.
The interview with Kamala Harris was a perfect example, as the cutting room floor was filled with footage of word salads being spewed by Harris.
The show painted itself into a corner, however, when the teaser releases did not match up with the actual interview, which is when Trump went ballistic.
Trump sued the network, calling for the full transcripts to be released, claiming this was a form of election interference, stating that the interview was intended to “mislead the public and attempt to tip the scales” in the election, according to CNN. Quite frankly, I agreed with him.
The parent company of CBS News, Paramount, decided to settle the suit, agreeing to pay Trump $16 million over the interview for his presidential library, but the total value of the settlement was reproted to be closer to $30 million.
Bill Owens, then the executive producer of the show, has always maintained that they did nothing wrong.
He wound up leaving the network, claiming that he was clear he would not be able to run the show in the manner that he wanted under this ownership group.
Wendy McMahon, who served as president and CEO of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures, also left, stating, "It's become clear that the company and I do not agree on a path forward,” reported CBS News.
During the National Press Foundation Annual Journalism Awards Dinner, Pelley introduced Owens, claiming, "Our previous owners at CBS faced political pressure and crumbled‚" according to Jeremy Barr of The Guardian.
Another “60 Minutes” reporter, Lesley Stahl, had stated, "We would have followed him off the cliff, but he urged us not to," referring to Owens. I would note that Stahl has egg on her face, blatantly mocking Trump during one interview for a claim that was eventually proven to be true regarding the Hunter Biden laptop.
Stahl, at the time, claimed that they could not air anything that was not “verified,” reported Yahoo, but the fact of the matter is that, at the time, outlets refused to do a true deep dive into the initial reporting because they did not want to hurt Joe Biden. Only after Biden lost did outlets conduct an honest investigation, and what do you know, Trump had hit the nail on the head.
I will defend honest journalism until they put me in the ground, but today’s journalists appear more like activists who love to play victim when they get caught. They will not find an empathetic shoulder here until they do their jobs and start reporting fairly on both sides of the aisle.
