CBS to Hand Over Transcript of Kamala Harriss 60 Minutes Interview to FCC

CBS News plans to comply with a request from the Federal Communications Commission for the unedited transcript of a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris that aired last year and became the subject of a lawsuit brought against the network by President Trump.The network’s news division received a letter of inquiry from the F.C.C., which is led by a Trump appointee, Brendan Carr, on Wednesday evening.The commission requested “the full, unedited transcript and camera feeds” from the interview with Ms.

Harris, which aired on “60 Minutes” in October.“We are working to comply with that inquiry as we are legally compelled to do,” a CBS News spokesman said on Friday.A spokesman for the F.C.C.did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Anna Gomez, a Democratic commissioner at the agency, criticized the request in a statement.

“Let’s be clear,” she wrote.“This is a retaliatory move by the government against broadcasters whose content or coverage is perceived to be unfavorable.

It is designed to instill fear in broadcast stations and influence a network’s editorial decisions.”Mr.Trump sued CBS last year for $10 billion and accused the network of deceptively editing the interview with Ms.

Harris in a manner that benefited her candidacy.Many media law experts had dismissed the litigation as an idiosyncratic effort to punish a news outlet, and CBS called the lawsuit “completely without merit.”But in the wake of Mr.

Trump’s election, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, has begun settlement discussions with representatives of Mr.Trump, according to several people with knowledge of the talks.

Many executives at Paramount believe that settling the suit could help pave the way for the F.C.C.to approve Paramount’s planned multibillion-dollar merger with another company.Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, strongly supports the company’s effort to settle the lawsuit, the people said.The F.C.C.

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