Democrats Press FCC, Fox News on Trump Interview Edits
Congressional Democrats are calling attention to reports that Fox News in June 2024 aired an edited version of an interview with now-President Donald Trump, with some citing it as a reason for the FCC to end what they see as partisan probes of CBS and other media outlets. House Oversight Committee ranking member Robert Garcia, D-Calif., asked Fox Corp. Chairman Lachlan Murdoch and Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott Thursday to explain the organization’s decision to air only part of Trump's answer to a question about whether he would release files related to accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., pressed the FCC Wednesday to “stop its partisan investigations into the news media,” claiming the agency is being hypocritical in continuing a probe on whether CBS’ editing of a 60 Minutes interview last October with then Vice President Kamala Harris during the election violates the agency’s rarely used news distortion rule (see 250205006). CBS parent Paramount Global recently reached a $16 million settlement of Trump's lawsuit over the Harris interview, a move some attorneys saw as aimed at easing the path to FCC approval of Skydance's proposed $8 billion purchase of the company. Paramount has denied those claims (see 2507020053).
Trump during the interview initially said he would release the files but in an unaired portion “clearly refuses to unequivocally endorse full declassification of the Epstein files,” Garcia said in a letter to Murdoch and Scott. Trump in recent days has stood by a DOJ memo saying it found no evidence that an Epstein client list exists. “Trump’s true answer was only released later, after the hype of the initial Sunday broadcast had reached the most people, as the Trump campaign continued to amplify the manipulated — and clearly manipulative — version,” Garcia said.
A Fox News spokesperson denied the company engaged in any “selective editing [of the Trump interview, which] had standard editorial cuts for time and the full answer to the question aired on the following day’s show.”
“It is obvious to the American public that someone is lying and someone is trying to hide something,” Garcia said. “As a network that reaches an estimated 2,663,000 total viewers, Fox News should not be in the business of censoring interviews with presidential candidates to mislead the public. The American people have a right to understand why Fox & Friends chose to alter President Trump’s stated position on the release of the Epstein files.”
“In stark contrast to Fox News’s handling of Trump’s interview, CBS’s edits did not alter the meaning of any of Harris’s answers,” the Democratic senators said in a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. “Yet, the FCC has opened a docket to accept comments on the Harris interview as a potential violation of the FCC’s little-used news distortion policy, an outrageous abuse of the Commission’s enforcement powers.” The FCC “should not investigate or pressure either CBS or Fox,” the senators said: Instead, the commission should close the CBS probe “and stop wielding its regulatory power as a weapon against the news media.” Carr's office didn't comment.