Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) wants more information about how President Donald Trump’s interview on 60 Minutes last month was edited.
The politician has penned a letter to CBS, specifically addressed to the network’s ombudsperson Ken Weinstein, calling out “the improper influence President Donald Trump wielded over CBS News’s editorial decisions” in that interview and other news coverage, according to the letter, which was obtained by The Hill.
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Raskin’s letter alleges that CBS News has become more sympathetic to the administration.
“President Trump increasingly appears to be exercising direct control over CBS’s editorial decisions, destroying CBS’s ‘journalistic integrity’ while violating its right to be free from governmental coercion and manipulation,” Raskin stated.
In the interview mentioned, CBS opted not to include Trump’s comments about the network’s parent company, Paramount, having paid his presidential foundation $16 million to settle a lawsuit. Trump had sued the company over how it put together a sit-down with Kamala Harris, the Democrat that he faced in the 2024 presidential election.
“Actually, 60 Minutes paid me a lotta money,” Trump told journalist Norah O’Donnell in an unaired part of the interview that was revealed in a transcript. “And you don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you.”
In his letter, Raskin wrote that the network is “just one victim in President Trump’s systematic campaign of intimidation against media organizations.”
Per The Hill, Raskin is asking for a copy of the editorial standards that the network uses to review complaints and communications that show producers received pertaining to the interview.
Paul Morigi/Getty
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) speaks on April 5
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to CBS News and Paramount for comment.
Trump has not been entirely unhappy with CBS, though.
After Paramount won approval to merge with Skydance from the Federal Communications Commission in August, Chairman and CEO David Ellison vowed that CBS would provide “unbiased journalism” encompassing “a variety of viewpoints.”
In his 60 Minutes interview, Trump praised CBS’ “great new leader,” Bari Weiss, who has no broadcast experience and was installed by Ellison, whose father is centibillionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
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