During his “60 Minutes” interview, President Donald Trump called Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer a “kamikaze,” complained about investigators searching through his wife’s closet, spoke in detail about ending wars and turned the tables on interviewer Norah O’Donnell to ask about safety in Washington, D.C.
None of that was seen by people who watched the CBS telecast Sunday night.
Less than half of O’Donnell’s interview, conducted Friday, actually made it onto the air. But CBS posted a transcript and video of the full 73-minute discussion online, so viewers could see for themselves what the president said that the network deemed worthy for inclusion in the 28-minute on-air segment.
That offered viewers a rare look inside the editing process at one of journalism’s best-known institutions, showing the dozens of decisions on clarity and newsworthiness that go into telling the story you see on television.
Beyond “60 Minutes,” the process is essentially the same throughout the world of journalism, from local newspapers to The New York Times, from specialty websites to The Associated Press. In short: Much like the old notion that everyone’s a critic, with this move everyone can be an editor.
A contrast to how ‘60 Minutes’ has worked throughout its history
Release of the Trump “outtakes” contrasted with CBS’ treatment of the “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris last fall. Trump sued CBS, claiming the interview with his Democratic opponent was deceptively edited, based on two different clips that were aired on the newsmagazine and “Face the Nation.”
CBS did not release a transcript of its Harris interview for four months, and not until the Trump-controlled Federal Communications Commission had applied public pressure. On a routine basis, “60 Minutes” — and most journalists — don’t release raw material in this way.
If CBS News is going to change its practices routinely in the future, one former “60 Minutes” producer said it should be up front with its viewers about it. Tom Bettag, who worked at the broadcast in the 1980s and is now a journalism professor at the University of Maryland, said it’s a product of the times in which we live, but there’s a downside to the practice of letting people in on the editing.
“I think there’s a very good reason not to allow people to do that, in order to avoid the arguments of ‘you should have done this’ or ‘you should have done that,’” Bettag said. “The assumption has been that your audience trusts you to use good judgment and to be fair.”
From the very start, the edited Trump interview showed a clear difference from the raw material. On the broadcast, O’Donnell’s interview began with discussion of the government shutdown. But when the two actually sat down, she started by asking the president about his just-concluded meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
That’s essentially a call journalists make every day in crafting reports: Pick material to emphasize that seems the most newsworthy, or of interest to the most people.
“The newsiest portions made the broadcast, which is why programs edit in the first place,” Brian Stelter wrote about the “60 Minutes” interview for CNN’s “Reliable Sources” newsletter.
The first words out of Trump’s mouth — “Democrats’ fault” — came before O’Donnell even completed her question. That clearly showed where Trump was going, and the broadcast interview reflected that. But it was edited several times for length, to avoid tangents and the repetitiveness of partisan attacks.
Of Schumer, Trump said, “He would rather see the country fail than have Trump and the Republicans do well” — a comment left out of the broadcast.
On cutting room floor: Trump says O’Donnell ‘should be ashamed’
Trump also told O’Donnell that she “should be ashamed” to be asking him about political retribution. That was left off the broadcast. Trump’s complaints about New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey were abbreviated — although his comment that James was a “terrible, dishonest person” was left in.
“I was struck by how much of what didn’t air from the interview were the parts that seemed more rant-filled and often confusing,” wrote journalist Rick Ellis, who painstakingly compared transcripts of the full interview and what CBS broadcast for the website All Your Screens.
Trump brought up his predecessor, President Joe Biden, more than 40 times in the interview but only six instances made the broadcast, Ellis said. The headline for Ellis’ story read, “’60 Minutes’ Edits (Most of) the Crazy Out of Its Interview with Donald Trump.”
CBS edited a handful of fact-checks into the “60 Minutes” story, most notably adding a military official’s refutation of Trump’s claim that China and Russia were testing nuclear weapons. There were a handful of missed opportunities, such as Trump’s claim that he was able to beat all of the legal “nonsense that was thrown at me.”
CBS removed an exchange during a discussion of crime in cities in which Trump asked O’Donnell whether she felt safer in Washington, D.C., after the president ordered the National Guard to patrol there. Generally, journalists like to keep the focus off themselves.
“You see a difference?” Trump asked her.
Responded O’Donnell: “I think I’ve been working too hard. I haven’t been out and about that much.”
“60 Minutes” pointed out that O’Donnell’s interview was conducted exactly a year after Trump filed his lawsuit regarding the Harris interview. But it left out of the broadcast Trump’s discussion about management changes at CBS’ parent company Paramount since the company agreed to pay him $16 million to settle the case.
“They paid me a lot of money for that,” Trump said. “You can’t have fake news. You’ve gotta have legit news. And I think that’s happening.” He praised Paramount’s new leaders along with the news division’s new editor-in-chief, The Free Press founder Bari Weiss.
That editing decision angered a Trump critic, Tim Miller at the Bulwark website. “’60 Minutes’ did not air the part where Trump discusses his success extorting the network and calls them Fake News,” he wrote on X. “This edit is harmful to me and I’m considering suing.”
CBS’ editing seemed to draw fewer complaints from Trump supporters. The White House’s “rapid response” X feed posted copies of both the full interview and what CBS put on the air.
Jorge Bonilla, writing for the conservative media watchdog Newsbusters, wrote that O’Donnell’s first interview with the newsmagazine contrasted with its “debacle” with Lesley Stahl five years ago, when Trump walked out.
“It appears,” he wrote, “that the Bari Weiss era is now full upon us at CBS News.”
