The Manipulated ‘60 Minutes’ Kamala Interview Fuels Media Distrust

[Michie]

COMMENTARY: The quickest path toward halting the spread of ‘disinformation’ is a mass media ecosystem that prizes truth.

Amid an otherwise unserious media blitz that featured spots on a sex-advice podcast, the Howard Stern Show, and The View, Vice-President Kamala Harris, to her credit, endured one serious and substantive interview by Bill Whitaker of CBS News’ 60 Minutes. Harris took critical questions about her policy proposals and her record as vice president on subjects ranging from immigration and the conflict in the Middle East, to the details of her gun ownership.

Whitaker appeared to put on a journalistic clinic rarely seen in this era of presidential politics. Fully in command of the facts and determined to extract answers without appearing overwrought or aggressive, Whitaker exuded old-school journalistic integrity. It was a pleasure to witness.

However, in the 24-hour period that unfolded, we learned that CBS wasn’t playing straight with the public. An X user called “Maze” posted side-by-side videos of Harris responding differently to Whitaker’s question on the conflict in Gaza: the original response CBS had used in its teaser clips that aired before the interview, and then an edited response that appeared in the actual episode of 60 Minutes.

Harris’ response was winding and uncertain in the unedited version:

Continued below.

Manipulated ‘60 Minutes’ Interview With Kamala Harris Fuels Media Distrust

COMMENTARY: The quickest path toward halting the spread of ‘disinformation’ is a mass media ecosystem that prizes truth.

www.ncregister.com

 

[Vambram]

I have a question for my fellow Christians. Is there any doubt that CBS news and the rest of the mainstream liberal news media are doing almost everything that they can do to attempt to try to tilt the elections in favor of Democratic Party politicians? To be fair, I do admit that FoxNews and the rest of conservative news media are doing the same thing in favor of Trump and Vance and GOP politicians.

 

[RileyG]

I have a question for my fellow Christians. Is there any doubt that CBS news and the rest of the mainstream liberal news media are doing almost everything that they can do to attempt to try to tilt the elections in favor of Democratic Party politicians? To be fair, I do admit that FoxNews and the rest of conservative news media are doing the same thing in favor of Trump and Vance and GOP politicians.

Yes. They want Harris to win.

 

[FenderTL5]

I have a question for my fellow Christians. Is there any doubt that CBS news and the rest of the mainstream liberal news media are doing almost everything that they can do to attempt to try to tilt the elections in favor of Democratic Party politicians? To be fair, I do admit that FoxNews and the rest of conservative news media are doing the same thing in favor of Trump and Vance and GOP politicians.

Read this (it's short, surface level, and accurate). Deregulation Destroyed Objective Reporting
Any time you hear a politician touting deregulation in any industry, let this be a cautionary tale.

 

[Vambram]

Read this (it's short, surface level, and accurate). Deregulation Destroyed Objective Reporting
Any time you hear a politician touting deregulation in any industry, let this be a cautionary tale.

That is an informative and very useful analysis. Thank you.

 

[ozso]

I have a question for my fellow Christians. Is there any doubt that CBS news and the rest of the mainstream liberal news media are doing almost everything that they can do to attempt to try to tilt the elections in favor of Democratic Party politicians? To be fair, I do admit that FoxNews and the rest of conservative news media are doing the same thing in favor of Trump and Vance and GOP politicians.

Of course, DT is the greatest threat to democracy since spandex.

 

[AlexB23]

I have a question for my fellow Christians. Is there any doubt that CBS news and the rest of the mainstream liberal news media are doing almost everything that they can do to attempt to try to tilt the elections in favor of Democratic Party politicians? To be fair, I do admit that FoxNews and the rest of conservative news media are doing the same thing in favor of Trump and Vance and GOP politicians.

About media bias, I do not have any TV channels at my place (all Roku here) and my DVD player, as my 43" monitor on my TV stand (that has great picture quality and accurate color rendering) does not have a built-in tuner. But, I can answer this: If one wants to fight against misinformation on both sides, one might want to use a DVR, and record important TV interviews. DVRs are digital video recorders that can record entire TV shows and dozens of hours of content onto a hard drive or flash drive, for any young ones here.

From what I have noticed, CBS and CNN want to tilt the election to Harris, while Fox and other conservative news companies want to tilt the election to Trump, and both sides tend to ignore moderate beliefs. Moderates and politically centrist folks almost always seem to get ignored by the media. Maybe the CBS owners have a vested interest in supporting Harris, while the Fox sponsors have an interest in supporting Trump. Maybe news companies should be run as nonprofits, and be vetted to make sure the content is centrist. AP News and Reuters tend to be less biased compared to CBS, CNN and Fox.

 

[Vambram]

About media bias, I do not have any TV channels at my place (all Roku here) and my DVD player, as my 43" monitor on my TV stand (that has great picture quality and accurate color rendering) does not have a built-in tuner. But, I can answer this: If one wants to fight against misinformation on both sides, one might want to use a DVR, and record important TV interviews. DVRs are digital video recorders that can record entire TV shows and dozens of hours of content onto a hard drive or flash drive, for any young ones here.

From what I have noticed, CBS and CNN want to tilt the election to Harris, while Fox and other conservative news companies want to tilt the election to Trump, and both sides tend to ignore moderate beliefs. Moderates and politically centrist folks almost always seem to get ignored by the media. Maybe the CBS owners have a vested interest in supporting Harris, while the Fox sponsors have an interest in supporting Trump. Maybe news companies should be run as nonprofits, and be vetted to make sure the content is centrist. AP News and Reuters tend to be less biased compared to CBS, CNN and Fox.

When it comes to political news, it looks like to me that AP News is often just as liberal biased as is MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News.

 

[AlexB23]

Read this (it's short, surface level, and accurate). Deregulation Destroyed Objective Reporting
Any time you hear a politician touting deregulation in any industry, let this be a cautionary tale.

Thank you for this article. It discusses how large media companies began to have free reign to spin the news when the deregulation happened in the 1980s and 1990s. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton ruined our news agencies. Yes, both a Republican and a Democrat damaged the news world in the US by deregulating the industry... Ahh, yet another reason why 3rd parties are the best.

 

[AlexB23]

When it comes to political news, it looks like to me that AP News is often just as liberal biased as is MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News.

That is true as well, but the bias seems slightly less so compared to CNN. I like the WSJ, as that news company has a center to center right bias when it comes to political news, without skewing to the far-right or far-left.

From my moderate perspective, AP seems pretty centrist (sometimes, it seems a little left, other times, it seems a little conservative, but on average, it seems pretty moderate). However, from a leftist perspective, AP may seem conservative, while from a conservative perspective, AP may seem liberal. In other words, our perspectives are all relative.

 

[FenderTL5]

Thank you for this article. It discusses how large media companies began to have free reign to spin the news when the deregulation happened in the 1980s and 1990s. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton ruined our news agencies. Yes, both a Republican and a Democrat damaged the news world in the US by deregulating the industry... Ahh, yet another reason why 3rd parties are the best.

You're welcome. but note; it wasn't just Reagan and Clinton, there was a progression that Reagan began that continued through Bush and onto Clinton. The removing of the guard rails in order to allow big media (where there were previously limits) didn't happen over night, with one ruling but was a succession of misssteps, but yes by both parties.
The ability to spin with impunity, that's on Reagan.

 

[FenderTL5]

When it comes to political news, it looks like to me that AP News is often just as liberal biased as is MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News.

When every issue is viewed through the ultra-right wing bias of the sources you seem to favor, then even an unbiased read will look liberal.
When I was working at a Christian radio station we would re-write AP sourced news articles. The subtle bias would be things like "anti-abortion activists" instead of "Pro-Life activists" but the AP is pretty fair over-all.

 

[AlexB23]

You're welcome. but note; it wasn't just Reagan and Clinton, there was a progression that Reagan began that continued through Bush and onto Clinton. The removing of the guard rails in order to allow big media (where there were previously limits) didn't happen over night, with one ruling but was a succession of misssteps, but yes by both parties.
The ability to spin with impunity, that's on Reagan.

Agreed. It was a mindset that started to form in the 1980s, and grew bigger in the 1990s. Both parties made critical errors that compounded on each other until everything fell apart. It is great that we are both moderates, and that we want unbiased news sources.

It does look like AP and Axios have moved a bit left recently in 2024 as Allsides has changed their scoring system and politics change, but Reuters is still in the center, and the Wall Street Journal is in the center as well. My favorite news sources (AP, the Guardian, BBC, Reuters and the WSJ) are rated center left to center right. The Guardian is good at covering climate change news, while AP, BBC and Reuters are great with world news. The WSJ is good with US news for the most part in my opinion, while the New York Post is good at covering some conservative stuff that is not too far-right. Opinion pieces, I try to avoid like the plague.

Source: https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart

 

[Vambram]

When every issue is viewed through the ultra-right wing bias of the sources you seem to favor, then even an unbiased read will look liberal.
When I was working at a Christian radio station we would re-write AP sourced news articles. The subtle bias would be things like "anti-abortion activists" instead of "Pro-Life activists" but the AP is pretty fair over-all.

Fox News is not ultra right. However, when AP sticks to facts, then and only then is AP a neutral news source in my opinion.

 

[AlexB23]

Fox News is not ultra right. However, when AP sticks to facts, then and only then is AP a neutral news source in my opinion.

It seems that Fox News is right, but not ultra right. InfoWars would be classified as ultra-right, and I recommend folks avoid that news site like the plague. I'd even avoid Fox as well, and stick with the Wall Street Journal, but if someone were to give me the choice between reading a Fox article vs. an InfoWars article, I'd go with Fox all the way. Fox at +3.88 is 1.12 points less biased compared to InfoWars at +5.00, according to AllSides.

Fox Bias Rating (+3.88): https://www.allsides.com/news-source/fox-news-media-bias

Infowars Bias Rating (+5.00): https://www.allsides.com/news-source/infowars

 

[Yarddog]

I have a question for my fellow Christians. Is there any doubt that CBS news and the rest of the mainstream liberal news media are doing almost everything that they can do to attempt to try to tilt the elections in favor of Democratic Party politicians? To be fair, I do admit that FoxNews and the rest of conservative news media are doing the same thing in favor of Trump and Vance and GOP politicians.

This is why I watch my local news when I want unbiased news.