A public interest law firm has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission alleging that CBS News engaged in “news distortion” when it significantly altered parts of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris earlier this month.

“This complaint concerns an act of significant and substantial news alteration, made in the middle of a heated presidential campaign,” wrote Daniel R. Suhr, president of the Center for American Rights.

Republicans, including the Trump campaign, have demanded that CBS News release an “unedited transcript” of the entire “60  Minutes” interview ever since it was discovered that one of Harris’ “word salad” answers was cut from the broadcast and replaced with a completely different answer.

Former President Donald Trump has also called for an investigation into the matter. In its complaint, the Center for American Rights demanded that the FCC compel CBS to release the transcript “to clarify this matter of national interest and importance.”

In a preview clip seen on Face the Nation the day before the broadcast, “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker tells Harris that “it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.”

The Democrat presidential nominee answered, “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.”

That incoherent word salad was one of several botched answers that went viral on social media following the train-wreck interview.

However, the prime-time 60 Minutes broadcast on October 7 featured a different, slightly better, but still unimpressive answer: “We are 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.”

“Under this Commission’s long-standing precedent, CBS retains the right to exercise news judgment when editing its material. And that kind of editing is normal in the context of a news magazine style show like ‘Sixty Minutes,'” Suhr noted in the complaint. “However, CBS crosses a line when its production reaches the point of so transforming an interviewee’s answer that it is a fundamentally different answer. This CBS may not do.”

The attorney argued that the FCC should take action because the Commission has a longstanding policy against “news distortion.”

“Here, CBS engaged in news distortion by editing its news program to such a great extent that the general public cannot know what answer the Vice President actually gave to a question of great importance on a matter of national security policy,” he argued.

Suhr called on the FCC to direct CBS “to release the complete transcript of the Vice President’s interview with ‘Sixty Minutes.’”

He argued that the need for the Commission’s intervention was “strengthened by CBS’s refusal thus far to release the transcript, which it has done in similar interviews in the past.”

This double standard was highlighted by former CBS reporter Catherine Herridge on X, who pointed out that the network had no problem releasing full transcripts of a 2019 interview with former  Attorney General Bill Barr, her 2020 interview with then-President Trump, and a full 60 Minutes interview transcript with Fed Chair Jerome Powell in February 2024.

Additionally, CBS News released the full transcript of an October 2018 60 Minutes interview with then-President Trump with Lesley Stahl.

“Releasing the full unedited transcript is consistent with journalistic transparency and it stands behind the integrity of the entire Kamala Harris edit, not just the clips under scrutiny,” Herridge wrote on X.  “CBS has the ability to immediately settle these questions and address merits of FCC complaint alleging ‘news distortion.'”

While CBS News has resisted calls to release the full transcript, 60 Minutes did put out a short, unrepentant statement Sunday evening, in an attempt to quell the growing scandal.

Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false.

60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.

Remember, Mr. Trump pulled out of his interview with 60 Minutes and the vice president participated.

Our long-standing invitation to former President Trump remains open. If he would like to discuss the issues facing the nation and the Harris interview, we would be happy to have him on 60 Minutes.

Unfortunately, 60 Minutes’ impulse to drag Trump into the matter did nothing to quell the controversy, and only strengthened impressions that the network is biased against the Republican in favor of Harris.

“Strong and prompt action by the Commission is necessary to restore public confidence in the broadcast and to clarify this matter of national interest and importance,” said Suhr.