Trump's complaints about '60 Minutes' put a spotlight on editing at the nation's top newsmagazine

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Trump's complaints about '60 Minutes' put a spotlight on editing at the nation's top newsmagazine

2024-10-11 08:35 Last Updated At：08:40

Donald Trump skipped a “60 Minutes” interview this past week, but he's attacking CBS for how it handled its session with opponent Kamala Harris, calling it a “giant fake news scam” and suggesting the network was out to protect her.

Portions of the Harris interview ran Monday on the newsmagazine and on the Sunday morning political show “Face the Nation." On two occasions, it depicted Harris giving different answers to questions posed by correspondent Bill Whitaker on the Biden administration's efforts to stop the war in the Mideast.

For CBS News, it was considered part of the typical editing and cross-promotion process that takes place for a big interview. Yet to those unfamiliar with journalism and television production, the effect can be jarring.

Whitaker interviewed Harris on Saturday afternoon, Oct. 5, in Washington for the special broadcast that aired Monday, two days later. But “60 Minutes” offered a portion of that interview to colleagues at “Face the Nation,” both to give the Sunday morning show some fresh news and to “tease” the longer interview.

At one point, Whitaker observed that it appeared Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, did not appear to be listening to the administration's suggestions.

“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,” the vice president said in response, on the “Face the Nation” clip.

On “60 Minutes,” after Whitaker said the same thing, Harris answered: “We're not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”

After the differences were pointed out online, Trump said on his Truth Social feed that Harris' “REAL ANSWER WAS CRAZY, OR DUMB, so they actually REPLACED it with another answer in order to save her or, at least, to make her look better.”

So what did Harris actually say to Whitaker?

Well, both things, according to CBS. Her full answer to the question was the two sentences put together — the first sentence used on “Face the Nation” and the second sentence on “60 Minutes.”

CBS said the need to make the “60 Minutes” interview segment concise prompted the editing. The full interview with Harris took 45 minutes, and it was fit into a 20-minute slot on the broadcast. Yet the editing made it appear that the answer shown on “60 Minutes” was the first thing Harris said in response to the question. Having “Face the Nation” show Whitaker asking the question — instead of having someone paraphrase it — added to the confusion and made CBS vulnerable to criticism.

The network would not respond to Trump's criticisms on the record but privately insisted nothing was done with the intention of benefiting Harris. The network has pointed out that the same process was in place when Trump was interviewed for the show several times earlier.

Asked about the flap by Variety, an aide to the Harris campaign said that “we do not control CBS' production decisions.”

According to an examination of the broadcasts, the same thing happened with the question that preceded Whitaker's observation that the Israeli leader did not appear to be listening to the U.S. Whitaker outlined a number of actions that Netanyahu had taken that the Biden administration had urged him not to, and asked, “Does the administration have no sway over Prime Minister Netanyahu?”

On “60 Minutes,” Harris' answer was brief: “The work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles.”

Yet on “Face the Nation,” Harris was shown giving an answer that lasted a full minute — and did not even include the quote that was used on “60 Minutes" the next night. As part of that answer, Harris spoke of efforts to achieve a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas. “We're not going to stop in terms of putting the pressure on Israel and in the region, including Arab leaders,” she said.

The Trump campaign has called for CBS News to release a full, unedited transcript of the Harris interview. “What do they, and Kamala, have to hide?” said Karoline Leavitt, the campaign's press secretary. The show sometimes airs longer versions of interviews online but does not release unedited transcripts.

During his 2020 campaign against Democrat Joe Biden, Trump was so annoyed with his interview with “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl that he cut short the session, and later released the campaign's recording of the full, unedited interview.

Meanwhile, some of Trump's critics have condemned the media this fall for editing and sanitizing some of his words during rallies and social media posts, a process they've called “sanewashing.”

David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.

In a story published on Oct. 10, 2024, about Kamala Harris' “60 Minutes” interview, The Associated Press erroneously reported the interview was taped on Sep. 28. It was Oct. 5.

Although Milton has moved on, at least 6 are dead and millions remain in the dark

2024-10-11 08:38 Last Updated At：08:40

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Rescue teams plucked Florida residents from the flotsam of Hurricane Milton on Thursday after the storm smashed through coastal communities where it tore homes into pieces, filled streets with mud and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes. At least six people were dead.

Arriving just two weeks after the misery wrought by Hurricane Helene, the system also knocked out power to more than 3 million customers, flooded barrier islands, tore the roof off a baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.

Among the most dramatic rescues, Hillsborough County officers found a 14-year-old boy floating on a piece of fence and pulled him onto a boat. A Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued a man who was left clinging to an ice chest in the Gulf of Mexico after his fishing boat was stranded in waters roiled by Hurricane Milton. The agency estimated the man had survived winds of 75 to 90 mph (121 to 145 kph) and waves up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) high during his night on the water.

“This man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner,” Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dana Grady said.

Despite the destruction, many people expressed relief that Milton wasn't worse. The hurricane spared Tampa a direct hit, and the lethal storm surge that scientists feared never materialized.

The storm tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall late Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane in Siesta Key, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa. Damage was widespread, and water levels may continue to rise for days, but Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was not “the worst-case scenario.”

“You face two hurricanes in a couple of weeks — not easy to go through — but I’ve seen a lot of resilience throughout this state,” the governor told a briefing in Sarasota. He said he was "very confident that this area is going to bounce back very, very quickly.”

Five people were killed in tornadoes in the Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, where homes were destroyed, authorities said. Police also found a woman dead under a fallen tree branch.

Speaking at a White House briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said there were reports of as many as 10 fatalities from tornadoes, but he cautioned that the number was tentative.

At least 340 individuals and 49 pets have been rescued in ongoing efforts, DeSantis said Thursday afternoon.

South of Tampa, Natasha Shannon and her husband, Terry, felt lucky to be alive after the hurricane peeled the tin roof off their cinder block home in Palmetto. They spent the night in a shelter with their three children and two grandchildren after she pushed them to leave.

“I said, ‘Baby, we got to go. Because we’re not going to survive this,’” she said.

They returned to find the roof torn into sheets across the street, shredded insulation hanging from exposed ceiling beams and their belongings soaked.

“It ain’t much but it was ours,” she said. “What little bit we did have is gone.”

The worst storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 8 to 10 feet (2.5 to 3 meters) — lower than in the worst place during Helene. The storm also dumped up to 18 inches (45 centimeters) of rain in some areas.

Officials in the hard-hit Florida counties of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee urged people to stay home, warning of downed power lines, trees in roads, blocked bridges and flooding.

Among the dozens of tornadoes was a twister that hit the tiny barrier island of Matlacha, just off Fort Myers. The fishing-and-tourism village also endured a surge, with many of the colorful buildings sustaining serious damage. Tom Reynolds, 90, spent the morning sweeping out 4 feet of mud and water and collecting chunks of aluminum siding torn off by a twister that also picked up a car and threw it across the road.

Elsewhere on the island, a house was blown into a street, temporarily blocking it. Some structures caught fire. Reynolds said he planned to repair the home he built three decades ago.

“What else am I going to do?” he said.

In contrast, city workers on Anna Maria Island were grateful not to be wading through floodwaters as they picked up debris Thursday morning, two weeks after Helene battered buildings and blew in piles of sand up to 6 feet (1.8 m) high. Those piles may have helped shield homes from further damage, said Jeremi Roberts of the State Emergency Response Team.

“I’m shocked it’s not more,” city worker Kati Sands said as she cleared the streets of siding and broken lights. “We lost so much with Helene, there wasn’t much left.”

Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida and left at least 230 people dead across the South. In many places along the coast, municipalities raced to collect and dispose of debris before Milton’s winds and storm surge could toss it around and compound any damage.

Power was knocked out across much of the state. More than 3.4 million homes and businesses were without electricity, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.

The fabric that serves as the roof of Tropicana Field — home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St. Petersburg — was ripped to shreds by fierce winds. Debris littered the field.

About 80,000 people spent the night in shelters, and thousands of others fled after authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders across 15 Florida counties with a total population of about 7.2 million people.

In Punta Gorda, a 10-foot surge from the Peace River swept into the historic district, damaging homes and depositing six boats along one riverside street. It was the third surge to hit the neighborhood in three months.

Josh Baldwin said he was leaning toward scrapping his 38-foot boat rather than pay $100,000 to fix it. He couldn’t get insurance because it was moored in Punta Gorda.

“They don’t like to pay out, and this place always gets ruined in hurricanes,” he said.

A half-block away, information technology workers Kent and Cathy Taylor and their son were using an SUV attached to a chain to pull waterlogged drywall out of the bottom floor of their three-story home, which they bought in July. The lower level is gutted, but the upper floors are still structurally sound.

“It will be beautiful again — it’s just a nick,” Cathy Taylor said.

By Thursday afternoon, Milton was headed into the Atlantic Ocean as a post-tropical cyclone with winds of 75 mph (120 kph) — just barely hurricane force.

Crossing the bridge from the mainland to Anna Maria Island early Thursday, Police Chief John Cosby breathed a sigh of relief. Nearly all residents had evacuated. There were no injuries or deaths, and the projected storm surge never happened. After fearing that his police department would be underwater, it remained dry.

“It's nice to have a place to come back to,” he said.

This version removes an erroneous reference to 150 tornadoes. Scientists say it's too early to know how many tornadoes developed.

Payne and Daley reported from Palmetto, Florida. Associated Press journalists Holly Ramer and Kathy McCormack in New Hampshire; Terry Spencer in Matlacha, Florida; Stephany Matat in Fort Pierce, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale; Michael Goldberg in Minneapolis; Joshua Boak in Washington; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and Adam Geller in New York contributed to this report.