CBS News To See If 'Let Fascists Lie All They Want, Live!' Is Good Business Model
This is all fine.
CBS News announced Friday that after Homeland Security Cosplay Secretary Kristi Noem accused the network of hurting her feelings, its Face the Nation Sunday show will henceforth air all its interviews live or live on tape without editing.
In an official government statement, DHS whined mightily that an interview with Noem that aired August 31 had been “deceptively” edited, because apparently any edits for time, or to remove potentially libelous statements, are now “deceptive” if they cut down on the propaganda value for the administration.
As it normally does with Face The Nation interviews, CBS did post the full 16-minute video online, along with a full transcript, but that wasn’t good enough for DHS. After all, the aired version removed several unsubstantiated slurs and outright lies Noem had made about Venezuelan immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and that’s just not fair!
Instead of defending its completely reasonable edits, the network announced that Face the Nation will no longer edit newsmaker interviews for time or most other reasons. The only exceptions will be to remove cussin,' because the FCC would ding ‘em for that, and to edit out any national security information an interviewee might blurt out. Yeah, we can imagine Trumpers griping about that, too.
Other CBS News programs will not be affected by the new policy, although we won’t be surprise if the network tweaks them to be kinder and gentler to the Trump administration, too. Maybe 60 Minutes will just run nothing but old Andy Rooney segments until 2028.
Quick reminder here: Kilmar Abrego Garcia has not been convicted of any crime. The government admitted in court that he was “accidentally” sent to El Salvador’s CECOT torture prison in defiance of a court order allowing him to remain legally in the US. Like the other immigrants sent to CECOT, he was deprived of due process. There’s zero credible evidence to prove he was a member — or maybe a leader! — of the MS-13 gang, no matter how often the administration calls him one. And of course the administration ignored the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision ordering it to “facilitate” his return to the US for weeks. Then in June, the government did bring Abrego Garcia back so it could prosecute him on bogus “human smuggling” charges.
Basically, Abrego Garcia’s case laid bare how illegally Trump, Noem, and the rest have acted, so he he had to be demonized and punished.
Noem’s appearance on Face the Nation was one more effort to stick it to Abrego Garcia. But then CBS went and undermined Noem — and America! — by exercising its First Amendment right to free speech, making it an enemy of the state too.
Noem lied on Elon Musk’s lie facilitation social media app (archive link) that she had simply tried to “report the facts” about Abrego Garcia, but then those traitors at CBS “shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth about this MS-13 gang member and the threat he poses to American public safety.”
This is where we remind you again that CBS News posted the full video and transcript, lies and all, in addition to the aired version. “Pretty weird cover-up if you ask me,” said Andy Rooney from beyond the grave.
DHS detailed Noem’s grievances in a statement that piled on the lies, claiming that in cutting about four minutes of the “16 minute and 40 second” video, CBS had removed Noem’s “answers exposing the truth about criminal illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia, President Donald Trump’s lawful actions to protect the American people, and Secretary Noem’s commitment to fight on behalf of the American people and their tax dollars.”
In other words, CBS cut out messaging the administration wanted, and that’s now censorship.
CBS cut from the interview a bit where Noem repeated unsubstantiated bullshit that AG Pam Bondi spouted at a news conference when the government returned Abrego Garcia to the US and charged him with “human smuggling.” According to Noem, Abrego Garcia is
“someone who was um so perverted that he solicited nude photos from minors. And even his fellow human traffickers told him to knock it off. He was so sick in what he was doing and how he was treating small children. So, uh, he needs to never be in the United States of America and our administration is making sure we're doing all that we can to bring him to justice.”
That sensationalistic accusation, based on dubious statements by jailhouse snitches who got their own immigration charges reduced, was so flimsy that the government didn’t actually include it in the criminal indictment against Abrego Garcia.
For what it’s worth, Noem didn’t repeat on camera another of the accusations Bondi made back in June, that Abrego Garcia had supposedly been involved in a murder in El Salvador. Gee, wonder why?
CBS also snipped a section of the interview where Noem claimed that “many” of the 5,000 people arrested during ICE sweeps in Los Angeles earlier this year had “conducted horrific um horrific activities against American citizens, trafficking of children and pedophiles” [sic]. As we pointed out at the time, the sweeps did scoop up a handful of people who had been convicted of crimes and had served their sentences, but no, the raids didn’t save Los Angeles from swarms of child traffickers.
CBS was entirely right to remove demonstrable lies like that. That’s journalism. There wasn’t a single instance where the interview cut out important context, which is the normal meaning of “deceptive editing.” But words no longer mean anything.
And what the hell, DHS’s complaint got the desired results. Instead of saying it stood by its edits and pointing out that the full interview and transcript are available to anyone who wants to see them, CBS News issued a statement Friday announcing the new policy. Without mentioning the Noem interview or the response from DHS, the network claimed, “In response to audience feedback over the past week, we have implemented a new policy for greater transparency in our interviews.” Ah yes, “audience feedback” — or at least feedback from the only members of the audience who might take revenge.
So now Trump administration figures can feel free to go on Face the Nation and lie all they want, and apart from whatever fact-checking host Margaret Brennan can provide in real time, those lies will largely air unchallenged. Maybe Brennan will be able to offer some corrections after a commercial break, but that might be unfair, too, requiring a minder from the administration to be on hand at all times.
The new Let Lying Liars Lie policy is just the latest capitulation by CBS and its parent company, Paramount Skydance, which in July handed Trump a $16 million settlement bribe to end his lawsuit against 60 Minutes for allegedly handing the election to Kamala Harris by making minor edits in an interview with her. That payoff came as Paramount was waiting for federal approval to merge with Skydance, and was followed shortly afterward by the cancellation of CBS’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, because it was supposedly not making any money as the most popular show in its time slot. Mmm-hmm, purely a financial decision.
On top of that, Paramount is also in talks to buy Bari Weiss’s Internet Hackjob Emporium, as Variety reports:
There is extreme concern among CBS News staffers that Weiss, who is expected to take a senior editorial role at CBS News if the deal is consummated, will steer the mainstream broadcast outlet into more partisan waters — something many news viewers (and the advertisers who want to reach them) say they don’t want.
Who wants that? You do, if you know what’s good for you.
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Stopped watching news shows 6 years ago. Life is much nicer without that drivel. I get my news from Wonkette!
They're still mad at Walter Cronkite for reporting on the tet offensive.