60 Minutes correspondent defends CBS Kamala Harris interview: Things are edited in every story

A “60 Minutes” correspondent defended CBS News’ controversial decision to air an edited version of Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview last week — but declined to comment on whether the full transcript should be released. “Things are edited in every story,” Jon Wertheim said Wednesday on sports podcast “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich” on OutKick.com. Aside from working as a “60 Minutes” correspondent, Wertheim is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and a commentator for The Tennis Channel.“You do these interviews, and ‘60 Minutes’ segments [are] about 13 minutes and 10 seconds, right?” Wertheim said.

“You spend hours, sometimes days and days, with the subject and, you know, you boil it down to 13 minutes.”Wertheim declined to answer whether the full transcript of the interview by “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker should be released, claiming it’s “above [his] pay grade.”He argued that there are some statements in transcripts that won’t make sense – and that news networks often edit out unflattering answers.“That happens all the time when you do a ‘60 Minutes’ interview.Somebody says, ‘You know what, can you ask me that again? I don’t like the way that came out,’” Wertheim said.

“You don’t put their first answer on there as an empathetic human being.”CBS has faced a flood of backlash for airing an edited version of Harris’ answer to US relations with Israel on Oct.7 after broadcasting her “word salad” reply to the same question during a promo for the upcoming special on CBS’ “Face the Nation” the day before.The editing decision provoked questions about whether CBS executives had moved to conceal Harris’ more convoluted answers.Wertheim argued that major news networks – along with newspapers – regularly make editing choices to save on time or space, or to pick the most impactful quotes.“When would you do a story and not edit, and not make choices and not make sort ...