CBS News recently received a request from the government to hand over a complete and unedited transcript of an interview aired on  October 2024. They are also requested to provide footage of the interview.

 The government, run by a Donald Trump appointee, asked for these materials to be turned over to them. This is convenient, with the Trump administration unrested over the outcome of President Donald Trump's 2023 recen with Kamala Harris.

    The 2024 interview, which featured Vice President Harris, might be under intense scrutiny. It could'll be more shocking  to see a portion of the interview with Harris included in the recording. Attacks on the Harris portion of the interview of course will be coming from a different perspective. There have been talks about CBS settling a 10 billion dollar lawsuit brought against it by Donald Trump. It is not clear who is trying to gain what.

It just seems very unlikely that CBS must move in compliance to this request.  The Commissioner at the time, Brendan Carr, gave facts that CBS sources had went through the cameras and beat down any and all efforts by the president to expose  the bias. A Democrat executive at the time, Anna Gomez, expressed her suspicions about any thing to do with threats to broadcast licenses  and if the FCC was biased or not in the lawsuit against the broadcast with the out come of the ruling.

    Looking at this in a broader way, it is important to see why this matters and what the consequences are.

    First,  the role of the FCC. It is a key player in communications law that must keep itself out of politics. Through this, it ensures they are unbiased.

    Second, it  reflects on the Trump administration’s attempts to use public resources, but this may not seem the most important. Giving power to an agency to oversee the media can easily shift the responsibility of the broadcaster.

    Third, the request may bring  new regulations of the media. The FCC has extensive power over the media, but we don't know what will happen if they can't stop it. It's just not best for the US to have this much power.

CBS Under Scrutiny Over Interview

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