In his interview with “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday, convicted felon Donald Trump gloated over CBS’ decision to bribe him and praised the news division’s new right-wing leader—but the network did not air these comments during their telecast.
The comments about the payoff did not make the program’s televised edit, but CBS posted them online later, along with the rest of the interview. Ironically, the payout to Trump was based on his complaint that edits to an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 amounted to election interference.
Legal experts say Trump’s suit was without merit, but CBS chose not to defend its own journalism, instead pursuing a cozier relationship with Trump amid its parent company’s major merger. Congressional Democrats recently launched an investigation into the matter, suggesting the payoff was “an offer of payment and benefits to a government official designed to achieve a specific outcome from the government—in other words, a bribe.”
In other comments that CBS also chose not to air, Trump praised the network’s newly appointed editor-in-chief Bari Weiss as “a great person.” Weiss is a conservative columnist who most recently led The Free Press, a right-leaning media outlet, and who has begun to shift CBS’ news operation further to the right.
During the on-air segment Trump was asked about his pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, replying, “I don’t know who he is.” Asked about Zhao’s apparent role in boosting a crypto coin benefitting the Trump family, he responded, “I know nothing about it, because I’m too busy doing the other thing.”
For years, Trump has argued that former President Joe Biden was unfit for office based on claims he was mentally unstable. And yet Trump has been accused of mental instability by several prominent political figures. By paying off Trump, hiring Bari Weiss to run the news division, and then trying to hide damning comments made during the interview, CBS continues to demonstrate that it is a compromised media organization. The network continues to lurch to the right, and shouldn't be trusted as a news source.
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