The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday released the transcript of a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that has been at the center of a lawsuit between CBS and President Trump.
The transcript of the interview shows that Ms. Harris gave a lengthy answer to a question about Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister. About 21 seconds of that answer was aired in a preview of the interview on “Face the Nation.” A different seven-second part of the answer aired the next day in an episode of “60 Minutes.”
After the interview aired, Mr. Trump sued CBS in Texas, claiming that “60 Minutes” deceptively edited the interview in order to interfere with the election.
But “60 Minutes” has argued that it did nothing wrong. It’s common practice for news organizations to include an excerpt from a full interview in news articles or TV broadcasts for the sake of concision.
CBS News and the F.C.C. on Wednesday posted the interview transcript nearly simultaneously. In a statement posted on the CBS News website, the company said the transcript shows that the “60 Minutes” broadcast “was not doctored or deceitful.”
“As the full transcript shows, we edited the interview to ensure that as much of the vice president’s answers to 60 Minutes’ many questions were included in our original broadcast while fairly representing those answers,” the statement added.
The F.C.C.’s chairman, Brendan Carr, had requested a transcript of the interview after a news distortion complaint was lodged with that agency. Mr. Carr has said that complaint could come up in the agency’s review of Paramount’s multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance, a Hollywood studio backed by the tech scion David Ellison.
Mr. Carr said in a statement on Wednesday that the agency would seek public comment regarding the news distortion complaint, adding that “the people will have a chance to weigh in.”
Executives at Paramount, the parent company of CBS, have been pursuing a settlement in Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, in hopes that it would improve the chances that the company could swiftly close its merger with Skydance.
Mr. Trump’s lawsuit has led to angst at CBS, where many staff members believe that any settlement would be a symbolic concession to the president and an acknowledgment of wrongdoing by “60 Minutes.” Bill Owens, the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” said Monday in a meeting with staff that he would not apologize to Mr. Trump as a part of any settlement with the network.
CBS is not the only news organization that Mr. Carr has scrutinized since Inauguration Day. Last week, Mr. Carr said that he had ordered the agency to investigate NPR and PBS over their use of corporate sponsorships, saying that those networks’ stations were violating rules that prohibited advertising.
