Fox News v. CBS News: Trump Sues CBS News over Harris's 60 Minutes Interview

 

On Thursday, Donald Trump filed a lawsuit to sue CBS News for $10 billion in damages. Trump claims that CBS's "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris was deceitfully edited for the purpose of election interference. I will examine the ways that Fox News and CBS News covered this story.

Fox News: "Trump sues CBS News for $10 billion alleging 'deceptive doctoring' of Harris' '60 Minutes' interview"

• Trump is suing CBS News for $10 billion in damages.
• Trump states CBS News practiced "deceptive conduct" for the purpose of election interference in its interview with Harris
• Trump's attorneys stated the complaint is due to "CBS’ partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public." 
• Trump's attorneys also claim that CBS performed these edits in an "attempt to tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party as the heated 2024 Presidential Election — which President Trump is leading — approaches its conclusion." 
• The lawsuit states that the actions of CBS News caused Trump, his campaign, and many Americans immense harm.
• Before the lawsuit was filed, Trump's attorneys demanded CBS News release a full transcript of the "60 Minutes" interview after it aired two different answers to the same question. 
• CBS News refused to release the full transcript and insisted that the interview had not been altered. 
• The lawsuit specifically references a clip from the interview in which Harris was asked why it seemed like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t listening to the U.S. 
• In a preview to the interview, Harris was seen giving a wordy response that many conservatives criticized as being a "word salad".
• "Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region"
• When the question aired during the primetime election special, Harris was seen giving a more focused and shorter response.
• "We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end"
• CBS had been accused by critics of editing Harris' wordier response in an attempt to prevent further backlash for Harris. 
• Trump's lawsuit states: "To paper over Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news"  
• The lawsuit claims that CBS' actions make it so the public can not determine whether they were seeing the real Kamala in the interview or an edited response. 
• Trump is demanding a jury trial and at least $10 billion in damages.

CBS News: "Trump sues CBS News over 60 Minutes interview with Harris; network says suit is 'completely without merit'"

• Trump has sued CBS News.
• He alleges that the network deceitfully edited its "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris to mislead the public and cause him an unfair disadvantage. 
• CBS News released a statement stating its intentions to vigorously defend against the lawsuit and calling Trump's claims "completely without merit" 
• The lawsuit comes days before Harris and Trump face off in the 2024 presidential election.
• The lawsuit centers around two clips from the interview.
• One of the clips was edited to include a longer section of her response to a question about the conflict in the Middle East.
• Trump claims this editing decision was done to assist Harris and mislead the public. 
• CBS News has disputed this.
• The lawsuit states: "To paper over Kamala's 'word salad' weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news."
• Trump is seeking a jury trial and at least $10 billion in damages.
• The CBS News statement states: "Former President Trump's repeated claims against 60 Minutes are false. The Interview was not doctored."
• Trump's legal complaint was filed on Thursday in federal court in the Northern District of Texas Amarillo division.
• This is a remote venue and the judge is a 2019 Trump appointee. 
• at least 14 politically sensitive cases have been brought to that court since Jan. 2021 by Republican-led states and special interest groups. 
• The lawsuit does not claim that the network defamed Trump.
• Instead, the suit attempts to use the Texas Deceptive Trade Practice Consumer Protection Act, a Texas statute that is meant to prevent advertisers from misleading the public about a product being sold.
• Geoffrey R. Stone, a First Amendment scholar and law professor at the University of Chicago, calls the lawsuit a "misapplication" of the law as the statute being used is about sales and CBS was not advertising anything during its interview. 
•  Noah Feldman, a constitutional law expert, calls the suit an "outrageous violation of First Amendment principles."
• Trump has made his displeasure about the interview known for weeks.
• A statement from "60 Minutes" claims that the two clips were edited differently because one segment afforded more time to accommodate a longer section of Harris's answer.
• The statement said: "Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate, and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide-ranging 21-minute-long segment."
• Trump has declined an invite to sit for his own "60 Minutes" interview.
• Trump has previously filed several lawsuits against media organizations. 
• Trump has lost defamation lawsuits against CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Discussion

The main difference I found between the two articles was that Fox News focused almost solely on the transcript of the lawsuit while CBS News focused more on discrediting the lawsuit. Since CBS is the one being sued, it makes sense that they would focus more on their perspective. The Fox News article provided the full transcript of the lawsuit which I found was helpful to look at while reading the articles. I think that providing a copy of the lawsuit added credibility to the Fox News article as one could easily check for themselves if what was being reported was true. 

I found the discussion in the CBS News article about how the lawsuit is attempting to use the Texas Deceptive Trade Practice Consumer Protection Act to be very interesting. I think that this is something the Fox News article could've also discussed as it helps clarify what the lawsuit is based on. I think that the CBS News article could've discussed why they chose not to release the transcript of Harris's interview. 

I think both articles could've benefited from providing video clips of the two different ways that the Harris interview was edited. I think that seeing and hearing the two clips side by side would help viewers decide for themselves if the editing seemed deceitful.