Raskin launches probe into CBS over Trump ’60 Minutes’ interview

Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin is demanding answers from CBS execs over a “60 Minutes” interview with President Trump last month.

Raskin slammed the network for giving Trump “improper influence” over “CBS News’ editorial decisions” in recent weeks, as well as the interview that aired on Nov. 2, The Hill reported.

“President Trump increasingly appears to be exercising direct control over CBS’s editorial decisions, destroying CBS’s ‘journalistic integrity’ while violating its right to be free from governmental coercion and manipulation,” Raskin wrote.

Raskin blasted the network for not including a portion of the Trump interview where the president reportedly bragged about the $16 million settlement Paramount (CBS’s parent company) had to pay to his presidential foundation.

Raskin declared that CBS News “is just one victim in President Trump’s systematic campaign of intimidation against media organizations,” citing Trump’s threat to sue the BBC for deceptively editing his comments on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Mr. Weinstein: news ombudsmen serve as independent advocates for the public, investigating complaints and publicly critiquing their organizations when those organizations fall short,” Raskin wrote in the letter that was given to The Hill. “You have a duty to defend CBS’s editorial independence, rather than ratify President Trump’s influence over the organization’s coverage.”

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The Maine Democrat is seeking a written explanation of CBS’s editorial standards, as well as an explanation of the network’s reported compliance with Trump’s editorial requests.

Raskin was applauded by leftists on X, but plenty more thought his effort was mostly political theatre.

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As BizPac Review reported in November:

Trump’s return to “60 Minutes” [was] a coup for new CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss who was recently hired to shake things up at a time when public faith in media has reached new lows due to biased and “woke” reporting, with one prime example being the perception that the Harris interview was doctored to make her appear more coherent and qualified to assume the presidency if elected.

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