CBS Warns That FCC Action On ’60 Minutes’ Complaint Would Create “A Less Free World” Where Government Becomes “A Roving Censor”

CBS is calling out the FCC‘s inquiry into how 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris as inappropriate for the federal agency, while warning that any government sanction against the network “would open the door to regular and repeated second guessing of broadcasters’ editorial judgments across the ideological spectrum.”

The network’s remarks were made in a filing with the FCC. A conservative group, the Center for American Rights, filed a complaint against the network last October, claiming that the network was being deceptive in the way that it edited the interview. 60 Minutes released the unedited transcript of the interview in response to an FCC inquiry, and said that it proved that the show engaged in routine editing practices. But FCC Chairman Brendan Carr kept the proceedings alive, setting it up for a public comment period.

“The Complaint filed against CBS for ‘news distortion’ envisions a less free world in which the federal government becomes a roving censor—one that second guesses and even punishes specific editorial decisions that are an essential part of producing news programming,” CBS said.

The Center for American Rights alleged that the network violated the FCC’s “news distortion” policy, in which the agency investigates whether a news report “was deliberately intended to mislead viewers or listeners.” But the FCC acknowledges that its authority is narrow, and that the agency “is prohibited by law from engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press.”

CBS said in its filing that the complaint “not only ignores the narrowness of the Commission’s rarely invoked and constitutionally suspect ‘news distortion’ policy; it also asks the Commission to violate its duties under the U.S. Constitution, along with multiple statutory authorities.”

In fact, the network challenged the constitutionality of the policy itself, writing that it stems from an era on the 1940s and 50s when means communications were scarce. The network notes that “any individual or organization with a smartphone can create and disseminate content expressing any and all viewpoints to a potential audience of many millions of people. In this dramatically changed media landscape, the federal government has no lawful role in policing the editorial decisions of broadcast news outlets.”

More to come.