‘Deceptive Conduct’: Trump Suing CBS Over Harris Interview
They could just release the transcript…then again, I don’t know if I’d trust that now.
Former President Donald Trump has sued CBS News for $10 million over the interview with VP Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes.
We know that CBS cut and edited Harris’s answer regarding Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
This action concerns CBS’s partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to (a) confuse, deceive, and mislead the public, and (b) 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, in violation of Tex. Bus. & Comm. Code § 17.46(a), which subjects “[f]alse, misleading, or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce” to suit under Tex. Bus. & Comm. Code §17.50(a)(1). See Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act (the “DTPA”), Tex. Bus. & Comm. Code § 17.41 et seq.
CBS didn’t tweak the clip. It was a full change from the answer 60 Minutes showed the day before the entire interview aired on TV.
WHITAKER: But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.
HARRIS: 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.
WHITAKER: But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.
HARRIS: Vice President Kamala Harris: We are not gonna stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.
Wow. Here’s what happened. 60Minutes released a preview of the Kamala interview before it aired. Netanyahu word salad clip got dunked on relentlessly. So… 60Minutes cut it from the version which actually aired on TV. Makes you wonder what else was left on the cutting room floor. https://t.co/n1nd1Iz26z
— Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) October 8, 2024
CBS issued a deceptive excuse on October 20 because, as I said above, the answer shown on TV did not come from the answer we heard in the clip from the day before (emphasis mine):
Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false.
60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. 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.
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Comments
Got to love Trump getting in one more October Surprise under the wire!
(Also, it’s kind of refreshing to watch so many October Surprises bomb. We’re no longer impressed with cheap hits that are easy to debunk.)
Look at this report that I found yesterday. Perhaps what the MSG comedian said about Puerto Rico is true: it is experiencing an environmental crisis, and it wasn’t a joke after all.
https://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/2024/10/puerto-rico-trash-problem/
CBS deserves this, but the timing n]may prove to be a distraction.
Trump should focus on policies. His, hers, and how his worked and will work again.
It seems that this kind of election interference is important. Dems Have adopted so many nasty practices, I remember when it was not this way.
It is important, and it is nasty. But, despite all their rhetoric against Trump, there’s no such crime as “election interference”.
I don’t think Trump expects to win. He wants the publicit
This is Trump accusing CBS of screwing pigs.
LBJ accused his opponent of screwing Pigs because he ew the opponent would have to spend the rest of the campaign denying the accusation.
Thell that to Mr Mackey:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/social-media-influencer-douglass-mackey-sentenced-after-conviction-election
Mackey wasn’t convicted of “election interference”. There is no such crime, so he wasn’t charged with it.
He was convicted of a specific civil rights violation: attempting to prevent someone from voting.
Whether he’s guilty depends on whether he should have anticipated that there are voters stupid enough to fall for his prank.
And whether tricking such stupid voters really violates the law. It seems to me that the onus should be on them to understand that it was a prank, and if they’re too stupid to do that then they shouldn’t vote.
I respect law as long as it serves justice the majority of the time. It does not carry the same weight as the ten commandants’.
We have ever increasing difunctional. There are a lot of problems now which need to be rectified, most of which are tied to Dems and their followers
This isn’t about respecting the law. It’s about charging someone with an offense that doesn’t exist.
Frivolous suit that should be thrown out immediately. What CBS did is protected by the first amendment. Texas’s Consumer Protection Act can’t override that.
False advertising laws are only constitutional because of the “commercial speech” doctrine; this was not commercial speech, because a political candidate is not an item in commerce, so it’s not covered by that doctrine. This is the same as the attempt to use false advertising laws to shut up oil company executives from giving their perspective on glowball warmening, which was dismissed because of the first amendment.
You could have shortened that for us by saying “blah, blah, blah…”
😒 😒 😒
You may be right. However CBS operates under a “broadcast license”. A bit antiquated, but their license requires them to be truthful and not lie or deceive. It’s long past the time that the legacy broadcast media be held to account.
No, it doesn’t. No network does. Broadcast licenses are issued to individual stations, not to networks. The stations affiliate themselves with a network and carry the network’s programming, but the network is not (usually) the owner, and is not the licensee.
Also, the FCC is subject to the first amendment, and can’t withdraw a station’s license for broadcasting protected speech.
Cbs itself does not operate under a broadcast license. It’s individual affiliates operate under those licenses. Povo’s licenses, and CBS can still be seen through cable networks. There is no license required to be on cable.
They do operate under a broadcast license. They have at least 1 if not more wholly owned stations. It’s a requirement of operating a network. Goes back to the 30’s when they set up the FCC. By making them own a station it makes them subject to the laws of the license.
So to you the first amendment is blah blah blah? Nice to know. You feel that way about the second amendment too? How about the fourth, fifth, and sixth?
No, the second is blam, blam, blam.
When NBC edited the Geroge Zimmerman 911 call having Zimmerman first saying Trayvon was black rather than the 911 operator asking later what color he was…. is that covered under the First Amendment? The words are all there just moved around in chronology.
That was defamation, which is an exception to the first amendment.
Unfortunately the (probably biased) judge held him to be a public figure and found that he hadn’t proved NBC’s lie met the Sullivan standard.
NBC twisted Zimmerman‘s words which, obviously, means that Zimmerman had standing to sue.
CBS twisted Harris‘s words which, obviously, means that Harris has standing to sue if she wishes.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are not the same person which, obviously, means that Trump does not have standing to sue.
This isn’t legal.
It’s political.
The lawsuit is going to go nowhere but headlines, in an attempt to get more voters to see what a crock of shit Harris is.
And knowingly filing a frivolous lawsuit is illegal and unethical. His lawyers should be sanctioned for filing this.
Also, Texas has a SLAPP law. Trump won damages against Stormy Daniels under California’s SLAPP law. Now CBS may decide to use it against him.
Forgive me for not caring. No one will be sanctioned because everyone understands what’s going on but you.
Come on – you’ve got a brain but sometimes you spam this place like a child.
How do you know no one will be sanctioned. If the judge wants to, Trump’s lawyers are in trouble. And if CBS files a SLAPP suit Trump will have to pay.
Here are a couple example of a politician who were cleared after years of fighting charges
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2009/0709/alaskas-tab-for-ethics-complaints-about-palin-19-million
All 15 ethics complaints against Palin considered so far by Alaska’s Personnel Board have been dismissed, though one resulted in a settlement requiring the governor to reimburse the state for travel costs incurred by her family.
https://apnews.com/article/ken-paxton-impeachment-texas-871fb9c57b38fbda5bec5c2e5f280755
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was fully acquitted Saturday of corruption charges in a historic impeachment trial….
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/georgia-judge-dismisses-two-criminal-counts-against-trump-fani-willis-2020-election-interference-case
A judge dismissed two criminal counts in the Georgia 2020 election interference case against former President Donald Trump and one other count against allies of the former president.
Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Georgia prosecutors had no authority to bring the charges, which related to alleged filing of false documents in federal court.
You miss the point. Haven’t you been paying attention all year? The validity of the charges don’t matter (See a multitude of charges against Trump for examples).
It is all about the immediate public perception created. The actual truth can come out a few years from now when no one cares any more.
You’re wrong there dude, the vice prostitute is most definitely a product that the problem media is trying to sell to the American people. Or at least the ones stupid enough to vote for a communist prostitute like Harris
No, she isn’t. Nobody is being asked to pay money for her, and if they do they will not own her. And she doesn’t belong to CBS, so they can’t sell her. There’s a little 13th amendment issue there. That is the definition of commerce, and without commerce there can’t be commercial fraud.
“this was not commercial speech, because a political candidate is not an item in commerce,”
It’s possible the entire Biden administration went over your head.
No, it didn’t. But commerce in the consumer protection laws is meant literally. Unless there is a product that is literally for sale, the laws don’t apply.
Election interference “is protected by the first amendment.”
Tell that to Douglass Mackey. Similar to CBS, he didn’t have or need a license to make his joke. But he’s in prison. This seems to be a double standard. A corporation can distort a presidential campaign but a private citizen can’t?
I should have written “a presidential election.”
Mackey tried to prevent people from voting, or at least that’s what the jury decided he was trying to do. That’s a completely different thing. It’s a civil rights violation. It’s not “election interference”.
Actually, it was commercial speech as it was aired, as a commercial, to entice would be viewers to watch 60 Minutes!
Millhouse you are getting a lot of down votes – inspite of reasonably well reasoned comments.
My thoughts
A) CBS has been a POS news organization for the last 30-40 years
B) CBS has broad rights to be a propaganda arm of the leftists
C) This lawsuit is going nowhere – nowhere fast
D) Zero basis for the suit – Trump wasnt defamed , nor does he have any cause of action
E) the only avenue that I think is possible (and only remotely possible) is a campaign finance type violation, though I am not sure what the basis would be
People like to come down on Milhouse because he comes across as a “Debbie downer” so often. But I find his arguments to usually be reasonable and well-argued. Although quite often his way of writing comes across as arrogant and condescending, I don’t think he means it that way usually, It’s just his style of making points. He could probably benefit from a “Crucial Conversations” class or two, but if he is GenX or Boomer he will look at that class and go WTF!!!
I remember when media was on a shorter leash, That they were required to demonstrate public good as a condition of being allowed to use wireless spectrum.
These SOBs should be reigned in.
At this point anyone who relies upon the mainstream media for their news is an abject moron.
CBS generally and 60 Minutes specifically were outed a very, very long time ago as liars completely unworthy of your trust. Chevy pickups and Ford Pintos, anyone?
As far as I am concerned, $60 billion isn’t even close to enough.
At least one of those was NBC, if not both.
This is Trump dominating the news cycle. He’s speed bagging the news media. Don’t let opposition writers catch breath or find firm footing; editors are only now putting the finishing touches on “Garbage Trump” rebuttals and he’s already moved on to suing 60 minutes.
Before Milhouse can say, “Blah, blah, blah”, Trump will have moved on to something else.
Not only speed bagging but tea bagging.
That is one insult that I hope comes back and bites them.
The correct long term course of action should be freezing out CBS from any interviews or question from any administration officials during the first three to six months of his next term.
How about for 4 years?
I would love to see CBS, face treble damages, end up in bankruptcy, followed by by a wealthy conservative acquisition. And then reorganization.
When I was downsizing, I often had sympathy for those who had to be cut, trimming CBS would probably be free of such concern.
Doesn’t Trump’s suit seek compensatory damages in the amount of $10 Billion?
When she is elected the WH won’t have to employ any speechwriters. They can just use a random word generator.
CBS hasn’t been trustworthy since at least Cronkite’s retirement, if then.
Cronkite’s retirement made CBS more trustworthy, at least for a short time.