The CBS network was criticised on Sunday night for its handling of President Donald Trump‘s interview on the long-running news program 60 Minutes.
During the episode, CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell pressed the 79-year-old president with challenging questions and appeared determined to address the nation’s biggest concerns about his policy decisions. However, numerous viewers expressed concern that the program seemed to be edited in a way that presented Trump unfavourably.
“Why, the hell, did Trump go on 60 Minutes? They’re doing everything they can to clip and edit and make him look bad,” one viewer complained on X, formerly Twitter, accusing CBS of apparently editing footage to cast Trump in a negative light.
A second commented, “So hard to watch that 60 Minutes…. Too much editing as usual,” while another observed, “This 60 Minutes interview is a disaster.”
It’s evident that many were disappointed with CBS’s presentation of Trump in his recent 60 Minutes interview, where he discussed subjects including China, Venezuela, and immigration.
Filmed on Friday, October 31, the interview with Norah O’Donnell broadcast on Sunday, November 2, representing Trump’s first appearance on 60 Minutes in five years. The interview also comes after a $16 million settlement between Trump and the network, following his legal action claiming deceptive editing of a Kamala Harris interview on 60 Minutes.
In July, Paramount, CBS’s parent company then known as Skydance, agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump. The suit claimed that CBS had deceptively edited a 60 Minutes interview with his Democratic presidential opponent, Kamala Harris, the previous year.
After Skydance acquired Paramount, it also purchased The Free Press and appointed its founder, Bari Weiss, as editor-in-chief of CBS News.
A month before the 2024 election, the Trump campaign declined an offer for a 60 Minutes interview, arguing they wouldn’t accept interruptions due to fact-checking.
DON’T MISS…
Fox News fans make jab at Trump’s ‘fragile little hand’ as he hands out candy
Fox and Friends host forced to give explanation after co-host questions story
Fox News host’s savage warning to Donald Trump – ‘Democrats gained some ground’
However, Trump’s opponent, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, accepted a 60 Minutes interview.This led to a lawsuit against CBS News filed by Trump just days before the 2024 election.
The lawsuit alleged that 60 Minutes tried to mislead voters by broadcasting two different edited versions of comments made during the Harris interview. While the case was initially set to be dismissed, it was later settled when Paramount Global chose to pay $16 million towards Trump’s “presidential library” in July.
As part of the settlement, Paramount stated that 60 Minutes would release transcripts of future interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after they air, subject to redactions as needed for legal or national security concerns.
