CBS News is not yet out of the forest: FCC chairman says that ‘news worming’ research into the Harris interview of ’60 minutes’ is underway

Although President Trump’s lawsuit has been settled against Statistics Netherlands and the merger of her parent company with Skydance Media has finally been approved, CBS News is still confronted with an investigation into a new dyeing of the Federal Communications Commission. It is about the same vice -president Harris interview that has been pilgriming CBS and her parent company, Paramount Global for the past nine months.

For months, the approval of the FCC of the Skydance deal seemed to be on hold as Mr. Trump’s lawsuit against CBS for the adaptation of the October interview of Mrs. Harris with “60 minutes”. A formal complaint about the interview was initially rejected by President Biden’s FCC, but was restored when Mr. Trump returned to power and his new FCC commissioner, Brendan Carr, launched a formal investigation into ‘news worming’.

During a performance at CNBC on Friday, the morning after the merger was approved, Mr. Carr, addressed Accusations of a few democratic senators and the anti-Trump cabaretier, Stephen Colbert, that the decision of Paramount to regulate Mr Trump’s lawsuit was a “bribe” to clear the way for the FCC to approve the Skydance deal. The chairman said that the key to approving the deal was actually the dedication of Skydance – made in written days before the transaction was approved – for an unbiased journalism.

CBS News, whose flagship program is ’60 minutes’, has been accused for decades of a pronounced liberal, anti-conservative and anti-Israel bias. Skydance has written that CBS News will practice ‘impartial journalism’ under its rule. Skydance also agreed to do a “content review” from CBS News and to appoint an ombudsman for at least two years that would be an internal police officer.

During his CNBC interview, Mr Carr said that the Skydance deal, Mr Trump’s lawsuit and a complaint about news worship against CBS were not related. But although the merger and lawsuit of the president have been resolved, the investigation of news worries continues to be underway.

“There was a lawsuit involving President Trump, who was outside the FCC, had nothing to do with us,” said Mr. Carr. “We had this [merger] Transaction for us, and we also have a complaint about news worship against CBS. The complaint of the news worship is still pending at the FCC and we have not made a final decision about it. “

CBS and Mr. Trump, in fact, agreed on the facts of the court case. CBS news producers edited a question and answer series to make Mrs. Harris more coherent. Mr. Trump claimed that this was ‘election interference’ – the interview was broadcast at a time, only a few weeks before the election day, when Mr. Harris was on fire because of her difficulty to express himself clearly – while CBS argued that the standard practice was to edit interviews for bumpyness and bonding.

Paramount agreed to pay $ 16 million to arrange Mr Trump’s lawsuit, but offered no apology, which would have been a recognition of misconduct and possibly had played the investigation of news worries. Since the merger has been approved and Mr Carr Optimism has spoken about the vision of the new owners for CBS News, it is unlikely that the FCC would choose to take the extraordinary step to withdraw the broadcasting permit, although he has previously threatened to take such an action.

However, there are a few other options available for the committee to punish CBS News for processing, such as a fine. In 2004, the FCC fine The $ 550,000 network for broadcasting a “wardrobe failure” that took place during the performance of singer Janet Jackson during the Super Bowl -time show about a short shot that showed her exposed breast.

CBS appealed against the fine and a panel with three judges on the third circuit of the US Court of Appeals found That the FCC acted ‘random and fickle’, because it said that the committee did not pay sufficient attention about changes in its enforcement policy.

The Supreme Court unanimously in 2012 rejected The government’s profession.

It is possible that the FCC can give a fine to CBS as a result of the investigation of news worship.

As an alternative, it could try to resolve the complaint through other concessions from the network, as possible that it requires conservative advertisements or announcements of the public services.

Mr. Trump said earlier this week in a post about Truth Social that he “anticipates”[s] Receiving $ 20 million dollars more of the new owners, in advertisements, PSAs or similar programming, for a total of more than $ 36 million dollars. “

Reports from the PSAs came shortly after Paramount announced his settlement for the first time. Paramount previously denied that it closed a deal to PSAs as part of the settlement. And there was speculation that Mr. Trump a side deal had closed with Skydance to air them. His post this week seemed to confirm the speculation.

However, the “anticipation” for the advertisements could arise from an expectation that the FCC CBS news would require to air them as a short-term help to prevent its liberal impact and offer equal time to conservatives.

Republicans have largely avoided interviews with “60 minutes” due to the ensuring that their pre -recorded interviews will be edited in ways that make them worse. The advertisements can be a more immediate effort to offer a kind of counterbalance to the left -hand bias.