Media, Politics

No, Trump Should Not Sue CBS

In an interview with podcast host Dan Bongino, former President Trump said he “thinks” he will sue CBS after it was found to have edited an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, only the latest such allegation against mainstream media. I hope that he will think again about this latest threat of litigation. I agree with the criticism of the media, including CBS, in the bias shown in the election. However, such a lawsuit would be legally groundless, in my view. If it is any solace, the media is doing enough damage to itself.

Many have criticized CBS for its editing of the interview with journalist Bill Whitaker after the network shortened portions of Harris’s answer to a question about the war in Gaza in its initial broadcast. It later provided a full transcript of her remarks online. (For full disclosure, I worked twice under contract with CBS as a legal analyst).

Trump, however, took the matter further in his interview, stating, “[s]o I think I’m going to sue them actually. I think so. No, you know what, they can’t defend it and if they do and even if they win it’s going to be very embarrassing.”

Such a lawsuit would fail. The media is allowed to engage in such editing. Indeed, bias itself is not generally actionable. Moreover, there were moments where Whitaker did press Harris in sharp contrast to most of her interviews on shows like The View, Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show, as well as on Late Night with Stephen Colbert. There were some tough moments where Whitaker pushed Harris to give more than soundbite answers.

I have been a vocal critic of the mainstream media for its embracing of what I refer to as “advocacy journalism” in my book, The Indispensable Right. Many in this country view mainstream media as a de facto state media due to the bias shown against Trump and for Democratic talking points. Indeed, the mantra “Let’s Go Brandon!” was embraced by millions as a criticism of the media as much as it was a criticism of President Biden.

However, the threats of harassing lawsuits destroys any moral high ground for Trump. It is also entirely unnecessary. As I wrote this weekend, “journalism has become a ship of fools who increasingly write for each other rather than the dwindling numbers of actual readers.”

CBS was widely criticized for the performance of Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan as moderators in the presidential debate. That includes reneging on a pledge not to “fact check” and showing manifest bias in their treatment of the candidates.

Television and print outlets are experiencing a sharp decline in revenue and audiences across the industry. As discussed in this weekend’s column, the public is going elsewhere for news. Trust in the media is at a record low. There is no lawsuit that could do the damage that the mainstream media is doing to itself.

Despite my criticism of the rise of mainstream or “legacy” media, I still believe that we need a strong “fourth estate” in a democracy. We need a neutral and objective media today more than ever. CBS is a network with a history of true legends in this field. It has served this country well in its tireless pursuit of important stories, including the disclosure of government abuses.

The current reporters and editors are destroying American journalism with their overt bias and hostility. However, it will be the public and the market (not lawsuits) that will ultimately hold the media accountable for the abandonment of neutrality principles.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

159 thoughts on “No, Trump Should Not Sue CBS”

  1. It’s hilarious what’s happening here. CBS is held as a standard. When it misses the mark everyone’s up in arms. OMG they edited Harris! Shame. Notice though, FOX News, OAN, Newsmax aren’t even in the conversation. Different planet. We already know that FOX News, OAN, and Newsmax are fully in the tank for MAGA. When Trump lies about hurricane relief or immigrants eating pets, Laura, Jesse, Sean and Fox and Friends are ready to take their marching orders and “find” the “truth” for Trump. I guess Turley can’t be bothered with referring to that s**t show cuz no one cares if MAGA news outlets lie. We expect it.

    1. FOX News, OAN, and Newsmax are fully in the tank for MAGA. When Trump lies about hurricane relief or immigrants eating pets

      When whining Democrat Useful Idiot commies whine “BBBUUTTTT… MUH FOX…. BBBUUUTTTT… MUH Trump!!!!…. BBBUUUTTTT… MUH TURLEY!!!!” after watching their fellow yentas at The View or Rachael Mad Cow, you know their manginas are still in a terminal Midol Moment.

      They hope nobody remembers they sucked up Obama/Biden’s shyte that with Obamacare, if you liked your doctor or your health care plan, you could keep them. CNN agreed. That was before they could blame their derangement on Trump.

      And when that turned out to be a massive lie, it became what we now call “being Grubered” after the Obama liar that snickered in public that depended on the stupidity of American voters to pass it.

      And how many years did we hear the CNN/MSNBC/ABC/NBC/PBS lie that the Obama, Clinton and DNC “Trump Russia Dossier” was validated US intelligence agency evidence. Four at least?

      And of course, the Biden Bribery Laptop was “just Russian election disinformation”. Nobody’s supposed to remember that.

      Not supposed to remember Bribery Biden now lying for four straight years he doesn’t know who any of his family’s customers from Communist China are. Doesn’t know their names. And certainly never met a single one of them – especially not in his office in the White House. Yep… don’t believe your lying eyes and think any of that actually happened, suckers.

      It’s not that Democrat commies can’t recognize lies… it’s that they depend on using accusations as their form of confessing their lies.

      Without lying and the Democrat-Media Propaganda Complex, they’d have nothing.

    1. 60 Minutes – lying and denying regarding what they did. So reminiscent of Leslie Stahl emphatically telling Trump and America that laptop full of incriminating evidence of Biden felonies wasn’t Hunter’s. Oh, and the FBI hadn’t spied on Trump and his campaign.

      But their denials after days and days of criticism is going to convince Americans that they’re really telling the truth now.

  3. Here is a Youtube video about the private response to natural disasters and how well it works.

    I have previously noted how Home Depot, WallMart and Denny’s put FEMA to shame in Natural disasters.

    I apparently Missed WaffleHouse – which is so effective in natural disasters that Even FEMA uses the “waffleHouse Index” for natural disasters not just to determine what areas are the hardest hit – but how rapidly recovery is taking place.

    1. Sinwar, Biden and Kamala Harris are a trio from the culture of death. The war could have been over in a flash, saving many lives and preserving the integrity of Gaza, but we are led by a duo of fools, Biden and Kamala Harris, who create destruction wherever they go.

      Thanks for the article.

  6. In other news, rapper-thing Lizzo flew to Detroit to a rally to express her support (at least, that is what it was nominally termed) for Harris, declaring (among a number of other rather ludicrous claims) that “They say if Kamala Harris wins, the whole country will be like Detroit.” I suggest that, since Harris has been mimicking so many Trump campaign positions and tactics of late, that she should continue to do so by aping his “MAGA” slogan with “MALD” – “Make America Like Detroit”…
    Democrats Cheer As Lizzo Says: “Whole Country Be Like Detroit” If Kamala Wins
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/democrats-cheer-lizzo-says-whole-country-be-detroit-if-kamala-wins

  7. What Trump is alleging goes beyond opinion journalism. He is saying that through its editing CBS falsified Harris’s answers to make her look better than she is. In the one example we know of they substituted one answer for another. We do not know what else they falsified. If Trump is wrong, CBS could prove it by releasing the unedited transcript. As Catherine Herridge has said, they did this in 2020 for a Trump interview.

    I would be surprised if there were no remedy for blatant falsification. One of the FCC commissioners has said there could be.

    1. Didn’t MSNBC do something very similar to Joe Rogan and he sued them? At the very least it would skirt election interference and lawfare seems to be the Democrats tool of choice. Bring the lawsuit in Florida, in a red district. Fair play for the Democrats!

      1. Obviously, if an actual American, who must, by definition, be a conservative, ever gets in office again, he needs to pull a full Lincoln, impose martial law, impose the dictatorship of the literal “manifest tenor” of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and restore maximal and comprehensive freedom, and the entire communist American welfare state of illegal alien invaders will vaporize instantly and vanish. 

        1. George’s idea of “an actual American” is Jefferson Davis, who heroically led the insurrection to force black Americans to remain Confederate Democrat slaves.

    3. By letting CBS off the hook you are saying that there are no limits to altering the data in an interview to suit your politics. The injury is “by the time they are caught, the circus has moved on.”
      CBS should be sued for violating at least one of the million laws all of us have to obey. Where is Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, and Kangaroo Merchan when there is honest work to be done on behalf of the public?

  8. One of Trump’s achievements in 2016 was humiliating the MSM (the other was preventing the Clinton Crime Syndicate from returning to the White House, which is why we love him). His aim is never to get money damages from the MSM but to expose their corruption, and this threat is no exception. I’m pretty sure Professor Turley knows this but he has to have product to deliver every day, so …

    Separately, the MSM is losing its monopoly on the purveyance of narrative, which explains two things: the leftist hostility towards Fox, and the fact all hell broke loose when Musk sought to buy Twitter and restore free speech. The shrill left-wing complaints about these two sources are the death throes of a corrupt and dying ideology.

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