February 1st 2025.
CBS News has been asked by the Trump Administration's Federal Communications Commission to hand over an unedited transcript of a recent "60 Minutes" interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. This request has raised concerns about the motives of a potentially vindictive administration. The New York Times reported that CBS News had previously refused to release transcripts during Donald Trump's candidacy for the Republican Party.
The interview in question has since become the subject of a lawsuit by Trump, prompting CBS News to comply with the request. A spokesperson for the network stated that they are legally obligated to do so. However, this move has been met with criticism from Democratic commissioner Ana Gomez at the FCC. Gomez believes that the request is an attempt to intimidate broadcasters and influence editorial decisions.
In 2024, Trump sued CBS News for $10 billion, claiming that they had deceptively edited the interview to benefit Harris' presidential campaign. Many media law experts saw this lawsuit as an act of retaliation against the news network. CBS News responded by stating that the lawsuit was baseless. Despite the FCC being an independent organization, Trump's appointee to head the commission, Brendan Carr, has shown support for the former president's stance on media bias. Carr has also been vocal about his views on the media, which has raised concerns about his ability to be impartial in his role at the FCC.
According to MSNBC, Carr is known for being the author of Project 2025 and has been a vocal critic of the media from a right-wing perspective. His current position at the FCC has come under scrutiny due to these views. Journalists at CBS News have expressed concerns about their parent company giving in to the Trump Administration's demands, especially when they believe that the lawsuit is winnable. This type of legal action against the media, known as strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP), has become a common tactic used by wealthy and powerful individuals to bully the press.
Seth Stern, the director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, has stated that these lawsuits are an attempt to bypass the First Amendment's protection of the press against defamation claims. He believes that this is just another tool used by those in power to silence and intimidate the media. This tactic has been used against other news outlets, such as ABC News and the Des Moines Register, as well as individual journalists like Ann Selzer. The use of this strategy has become a cause for concern among journalists and media organizations, who fear that it may lead to self-censorship and a chilling effect on freedom of the press.
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