One of the two Republican-nominated commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission told RedState that he informed Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel of CBS News’ conduct over its owned-and-operated WCBS-TV station when it heavily aired its interview with Vice President Kamala Harris edited.
“I think I’m the only one who is publicly addressing the issue,” the FCC commissioner said Nathan Symington. “Nevertheless, I sent an inquiry to the chair asking her for her position on this and asking whether she would consider the appropriate designation for additional public relations work.”
Simington said the FCC has no authority over Internet channels and networks like CBS do not have a broadcast license as a company. Rather, the license lies with individual broadcasters, so action must be taken against the broadcaster. WCBS-TVwhich in this case is owned and operated by CBS.
Interesting. 🤔 Great if true. I’ll take a look at it. https://t.co/M2JHHYKOc6
— Nathan Simington (@SimingtonFCC) October 16, 2024
Simington said that while the FCC had enforced a so-called “fairness doctrine” for many years, it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1969 Decision between Red Lion Broadcasting and FCCit has been a dead letter since 1985.
Instead of resorting to the Fairness Doctrine, the commissioner said the FCC could report a broadcaster for news distortion.
“The FCC doesn’t act like a truth committee and make sure everyone behaves appropriately,” said the University of Michigan Law School graduate. “If something actually damages someone’s reputation in this way as a result of a fraudulent editing process, and it is broadcast by a television station that knows about it and condones that process, then there is a potential claim of news distortion.”
“Well-founded claims of news bias are very few and far between. The last time I was in court was in the late 1990s, but that’s not impossible. “It’s not an impossible bar. We shouldn’t give up,” the commissioner also said. “As long as these rules are in place, it makes sense that we dust them off and see whether they apply in this or any other possible case,” he said.
The editing of the interview was revealed by CBS News itself.
Harris sat down with “60 Minutes” reporter Bill Whitaker for an interview that aired Monday night, October 7, during the election presentation. The day before, CBS News aired a teaser clip for “Face the Nation.”
CBS quietly edits Kamala’s word salad response and immediately disqualifies it as a news organization.
No Republican candidate should ever agree to a debate on this network again.
Stop legitimizing propaganda.pic.twitter.com/1Ljs7LBc2F
— Rob Smith (@robsmithonline) October 10, 2024
Although The Harris campaign denied any involvementIn the hours between the teaser and the interview’s formal broadcast, Harris’ response was significantly shortened, making it far less than her typical word salad.
Simington said he couldn’t bring a commission action on his own.
The Center for American Rights reports news bias to the FCC
While the commissioner waits for Rosenworcel to act, the Chicago-based Center for American Rights filed its own complaint Thursday.
Here’s how the complaintsubmitted by the center president, Daniel R. Suhrdescribed the edit as intentional news distortion:
In the first clip, CBS journalist Bill Whitaker asks the vice president about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “But it seems Prime Minister Netanyahu isn’t listening.”
In this clip, Harris responds: “Well, Bill, the work that we’ve done has led to a number of movements by Israel in this region that were very much triggered by or the result of many things, including our advocacy “What needs to be done” is happening in the region.”
In the second clip, Whitaker asks the exact same question. But in this clip, Harris responds: “We will not stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States
States must be clear about where we stand in terms of the need to end this war.”
Same interview, same question, two completely different answers.
Suhr, a senior adviser to former Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, asked the FCC for relief: “Direct CBS to release the full transcript of the vice president’s interview with ‘Sixty Minutes.'” The Commission’s need for action is underlined by the “CBS’s previous refusal to release the transcript reinforces what has been the case in similar interviews in the past.”
Suhr said he was motivated to file the complaint to restore trust in the media.
“This is about public trust in the media on critical issues of national security and international relations during one of the most consequential elections of our time,” he said.
“When broadcasters manipulate interviews and distort reality, it undermines democracy itself,” he said. “The FCC must act quickly to restore the public’s trust in our news media.”
Former President Donald Trump also commented on this:
Simington: The FCC needs to take news bias very seriously
A senior FCC official told RedState that another factor is that if a station shows a pattern of news bias, the commission can impose conditions on the station’s license renewal.
The employee said these conditions were taken very seriously in the industry as they would significantly reduce the value of the license in the market.
If anyone is looking for a pattern, CBS News didn’t support matters when Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) accused the Tiffany Network of doctoring the tape of his “Face the Nation” interview:
Apparently CBS also doesn’t want you to know about Virginia Governor Youngkin, who is trying to purge the state’s voter rolls so non-American citizens can’t vote there.
We need more states to do this, but the Biden-Harris administration is suing Virginia and trying to STOP this. pic.twitter.com/10JIJSNkPR
– Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) October 15, 2024
Simington said there is a two-step test to determine whether a station has distorted the news.
“Our benchmark is materiality and substantiality,” he said. “The materiality standard fundamentally asks the question of who is doing it. If there is an action that is indispensable, that is an action.
“If the licensee himself has participated or consented, the materiality threshold has probably been met,” he said. “Next we turn to substantiality. We say that allegations of news distortion are significant if, first, they are intended to intentionally mislead and, second, they are involved in a significant event – not just minor or incidental.”
Simington said successful complaints about news distortion are extremely sporadic, so in his 25 years in broadcast law he was not aware of any such.
That doesn’t mean the FCC doesn’t have a role in protecting the public, he said.
“This would be new territory for many of us,” he said. “On the other hand, we have had rules for 50 years that say you cannot distort the news if there is a justified accusation.”
