Donald Trump, ‘Genetics’ Enthusiast, Demands FCC Investigation Of CBS For Criminal Video Editing

Is this a cancel culture?

By Liz Dye on October 10, 2024 3:15 pm
Donald Trump yelling

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Donald Trump is mad online. Again.

No, not because “BETA MALE Howard Stern made a fool of himself on his low rated radio show.” Not because Vice President Harris chatted with”the degenerates on The View,” and “the dumb women on the show wish they never asked her the question that led to that Election Defying answer.” And not because Harris sat down with “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper and her five million strong “Daddy Gang” for a discussion on abortion, sexual assault, and why humility is not an aspirational goal for women. (No Truth Social link because women under 35 speak at a frequency inaudible to the former president. True story!)

Trump, for whom it is always and forever 1987, is up in his feelings about Harris’s appearance on “60 Minutes” with journalist Bill Whitaker.

The Interview on 60 Minutes with Comrade Kamala Harris is considered by many of those who reviewed it, the WORST Interview they have ever seen. She literally had no idea what she was talking about, and it was an embarrassment to our Country that a Major Party Candidate would be so completely inept. In addition, her Incompetence on “helping” people through the devastation of Hurricane Helene is being reviewed as, by far, the Worst in American History, even worse than Katrina - If that is possible! I can’t imagine anybody living in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, or Tennessee, voting for her. Pollsters are saying that the anti, or negative, Vote in those places, and even places not affected but with people watching what took place, will be heavily against her. This is good news because November 5th is the Most Important Day in the History of our Country, and we cannot bear four more years of Incompetence. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! At first Trump insisted she’d faceplanted, scoffing that it was “considered by many of those who reviewed it, the WORST Interview they have ever seen.” But soon he shifted to complaints about the network’s editorial decisions, claiming that the network had cleaned up Harris’s answers, particularly on questions about Israel, to make them more coherent.

I’ve never seen this before, but the producers of 60 Minutes sliced and diced (“cut and pasted”) Lyin’ Kamala’s answers to questions, which were virtually incoherent, over and over again, some by as many as four times in a single sentence or thought, all in an effort, possibly illegal as part of the “News Division,” which must be licensed, to make her look “more Presidential,” or a least, better. It may also be a major Campaign Finance Violation. This is a stain on the reputation of 60 Minutes that is not recoverable - It will always remain with this once storied brand. I have never heard of such a thing being done in “News.” It is the very definition of FAKE NEWS! The public is owed a MAJOR AND IMMEDIATE APOLOGY! This is an open and shut case, and must be investigated, starting today!

Then, in a post accusing Harris of being “virtually incoherent,” Trump went from describing CBS’s editorial choices as “possibly illegal” to “an open and shut case” which “must be investigated, starting today!”

“Just imagine, 60 Minutes actually took Lyin’ Kamala’s answers, and CHANGED THEM. It’s unthinkable. They are in big trouble!” he yelled into the cloudless ether.

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And he was still at it this morning, screeching that “CBS should lose its license” and “be bid out to the highest bidder.”

That’s big talk from a candidate who spews the vilest racism, only to have it described as a “fascination with genes and genetics.” Perhaps the guy who spawned the neologism “sanewashing” should simmer down about networks cleaning up a candidate’s prose.

But this is hardly the first time Trump suggested that journalists he doesn’t like should be silenced. After his sole debate with Harris (THERE WILL BE NO REMATCH! BESIDES, KAMALA STATED CLEARLY, YESTERDAY, THAT SHE WOULD NOT DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT THAN JOE BIDEN, SO THERE IS NOTHING TO DEBATE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!), he complained to his Fox & Friends support group that ABC should be punished for being mean to him.

“To be honest, they’re a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that,” he whined.

To be honest, no they don’t. You don’t need a license to practice journalism. You don’t even need a license to own a television network. The FCC does license local television stations which use the scarce broadcast spectrum, a vestige from the days when Americans got their six channels through metal divining rods on the roof. But even Trump must know that it doesn’t work like that any more.

But more to the point, the FCC isn’t going after television networks because it doesn’t like their coverage, no matter how vile and mendacious. (Cf Fox freakin’ News.)

As current FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted during the last campaign when Trump tried to get her predecessor Ajit Pai to go after Comcast, “The FCC doesn’t sanction stations for what journalists say.”

Rosenworcel has been debunking Trump’s claims since at least 2017, when she penned an article in Cosmopolitan calling it an absolute affront to the First Amendment for a sitting president to demand that the government punish speech. And she’s still at it, putting out a statement today responding to Trump’s calls to sanction CBS:

While repeated attacks against broadcast stations by the former President may now be familiar, these threats against free speech are serious and should not be ignored. As I’ve said before, the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy. The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.

Trump responded by posting that inflation is up, manufacturing jobs are down, and FEMA has abandoned North Carolina. Then he took credit for capping insulin costs at $35 a month in 2022. But don’t say on air that those are abject lies, because that’s an illegal campaign contribution and they’ll take away your license.

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.