Hypocrisy Much? Fox News Just Did What It's Been Slamming '60 Minutes' Over
Perhaps, every accusation is a confession.
‘60 Minutes’ has faced weeks of fury from former President Donald Trump and his Fox News acolytes over the way the CBS newsmagazine edited its interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
It would appear that Fox may need to aim that outrage inward now, as the right-wing network recently sliced and diced a prominent conservative celebrity’s response in a primetime interview, only to surreptitiously use the unaired comments in a later program. And Fox anchors have also protected high-profile guests like Trump and Kanye West with sly edits, too.
To refresh your memory – in case you haven't heard the more than 250 times Fox personalities have raged about it on air – the conservative network and Trump are claiming the ‘60 Minutes’ edit of the early October interview was “manipulative” and are demanding recriminations.
“60 MINUTES SHOULD BE IMMEDIATELY TAKEN OFF THE AIR - ELECTION INTERFERENCE. CBS SHOULD LOSE ITS LICENSE. THIS IS THE BIGGEST SCANDAL IN BROADCAST HISTORY,” Trump raged on his Truth Social platform last week. “Kamala should be investigated and forced off the Campaign, and Joe Biden allowed to take back his rightful place (He got 14 Million Primary Votes, she got none!).”
During a Sunday interview with Fox News media host Howie Kurtz, Trump doubled down on his demand that the Federal Communications Commission take CBS off the air and said that he was “going to subpoena their records” to prove the network worked in coordination with Harris’ campaign to make her “look better” in the interview.
Meanwhile, with conservative media and Team Trump demanding that ‘60 Minutes’ release a full unedited transcript of the Harris interview, the show pushed back on the “false” accusations that it deceitfully edited the Democratic presidential nominee’s answers.
“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,” the show’s Sunday night statement read. “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.”
While Trump responded to the statement by threatening a lawsuit, Kurtz unleashed his own torrent of righteous indignation at ‘60 Minutes’ over what he called its “pathetic response” to the whole saga.
“You can’t have a different part of an answer to the same question. It’s blatantly unethical, and if someone on my staff did that, they would be looking for a new job,” Kurtz declared during a Monday afternoon Fox News segment.
A day later, Kurtz’s own network would do the very thing it has been sanctimoniously raging at CBS for doing.