A media watchdog group says the former president is unlikely to prevail, but there is a lawsuit to be filed.
Many may remember this exchange between 60 Minutes reporter Bill Whitacre and Kamala Harris about a month ago.
“But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening. We're not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end,” Harris said in the interview.
Surprise! It was really word salad
It was a rather vague but relatively clear answer to an important foreign policy issue. It was later discovered that Harris' answer was rather a typical, for her, word salad that CBS allegedly covered up with a stealth edit. Donald Trump says that's election interference, and he wants a federal judge to fine the network $10 billion.
Dan Schneider of Media Research Center says he's unlikely to prevail.
“The problem Donald Trump has is that media outlets, they are, in fact, allowed to be biased. So he would have to show, somehow, that editing the Kamala Harris tape was, in fact, defamatory.”
That's incredibly difficult to prove. But Schneider says there is a pound of flesh to be had if the Trump campaign chooses a different legal track.
“I think the much better suit is illegal coordination,” Schneider said.
CBS is legally allowed to be biased. What it cannot do is coordinate with a political campaign to help a candidate get elected.
“We have sent a letter to the CEO of the corporation, demanding not only the release of the videotape, but also an explanation of whether there was any communication, post interview, with the Kamala Harris campaign,” Schneider said.
Network denies allegations
CBS has so far has denied allegations that it tampered with the interview and has refused to release the transcript citing its First Amendment rights.
"To paper over Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news," the lawsuit states.
