Placing a Thumb on the Scale
James Freeman, in today’s column in the WSJ brings up several notable points:
- Joe Biden is no longer in office.
- The Donald Trump lawsuit has been settled.
- The Redstones are no longer in charge.
- This is not a matter of classified intelligence.
- This is a matter of “enormous public interest.”
One salient question: who was running the US government prior to 20 Jan 2025?
There are related questions about who knew what and when regarding Mr. Biden’s cognitive challenges. Now the former controlling shareholder of the parent company of CBS News suggests that in 2023 staff at the network got a damning look at a struggling Mr. Biden that they never shared with viewers.
From former CBS reporter Catherine Herridge:
Last year, I called for more transparency @60Minutes about its October 2023 interview with President Biden.
Now we learn via @nytimes even the owner Shari Redstone had concerns.
Releasing the raw video and transcripts from the Biden interview would address the larger question of whether there is a pattern and practice @CBSNews of heavy-handed editing to make some politicians look better and other politicians look worse. In this case, did editing conceal President Biden’s cognitive decline?
About the legal settlement that occurred last month, the Journal’s Joe Flint noted:
Paramount Global… agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by President Trump alleging “60 Minutes” deceitfully edited an interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harristo make her sound better.
CBS denied any wrongdoing or doctoring her comments.
According to James Stewart in the New York Times:
The Redstones… worried that Mr. Trump’s lawyers could cherry-pick raw footage and internal communications and do more damage to CBS News’s reputation than any settlement would.
Ms. Redstone said CBS personnel had told her that in October 2023, when Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes” interviewed President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the president had seemed drowsy and had to be prodded to answer. She and [her son Tyler Korff] worried that CBS might be accused of editing the interview to conceal Mr. Biden’s failings.
According to Stewart, Ms. Redstone argued that this case was “never as black-and-white as people assumed.”
One person who witnessed the interview in person, and another who recently reviewed the raw footage, said the Redstones’ concerns about the Biden interview were overblown. Mr. Biden gave some typically circuitous answers, but he never had to be prodded, they said. On air, Mr. Pelley characterized Mr. Biden as seeming “tired.”
This seems like a great time for CBS to use this as an opportunity to embrace a new era of transparency. Don’t viewers deserve a comment?
As James Freeman notes, CBS declined to comment.
