CBS shouldn't celebrate Emmy nom for Harris interview that ignited network turmoil, industry insider says
Not everyone believes CBS News staffers should be celebrating the controversial "60 Minutes" interview at the center of President Donald Trump's high-stakes lawsuit landing an Emmy nomination.
The nominations for the 46th News & Documentary Emmy Awards were announced this week and "60 Minutes" landed several nods, most notably in the Outstanding Edited Interview category for its primetime special featuring then-Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Trump is seeking $20 billion from CBS News and its parent company, Paramount Global, for what he alleged was election interference with how the network edited its interview with Harris in the days leading up to the presidential election.
"CBS Evening News" executive producer Guy Campanile took to social media to declare the nomination a "mic drop," but one insider doesn’t believe the nomination will help things from a legal standpoint.
'60 MINUTES' KAMALA HARRIS INTERVIEW AT THE CENTER OF TRUMP'S CBS LAWSUIT RECEIVES EMMY NOMINATION
"The irony is, some folks at ‘60 Minutes’ are popping champagne over an Emmy nomination — for the same interview that landed them in legal hot water. It’s a reminder that these awards are voted on by other journalists, not the public, not their bosses — and certainly not lawyers," a source familiar with the inner workings of CBS News told Fox News Digital.
As the two sides have entered mediation in hopes of reaching a settlement, many legal and journalism aficionados have suggested the lawsuit is bogus and would be much ado about nothing if Paramount Global controlling shareholder Shari Redstone didn’t want to settle the suit ahead of a planned multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance Media.
It is widely believed that Redstone hopes to prevent potential retribution by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which has the authority to halt the transaction. The ordeal has CBS News staffers "on edge," and the source believes the company brought this on themselves.
"We are living in serious times when there are much bigger and more important issues and forces at play. The threats to a free and independent press are real, and this lawsuit is just one aspect of that. But the reality of the situation is that it wasn’t a good interview and that’s how they got themselves into this predicament in the first place," the source said.
"It gave Trump an opening, and he took it," they continued. "It was to wedge a wrench in the gears that make the ‘60 Minutes’ clock tick."
The lawsuit stems from an exchange Harris had with "60 Minutes" correspondent Bill Whitaker, when he asked her why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn't "listening" to the Biden administration.
Harris was widely mocked for the "word salad" answer that aired in a preview clip of the interview on "Face the Nation." However, when Whitaker was shown asking the same question during the primetime special the following night, Harris had a different, more concise response.
Critics at the time accused CBS News of editing Harris' "word salad" answer to shield the presidential candidate from further backlash leading up to Election Day.
Earlier this year, FCC Chair Brendan Carr ordered CBS News to hand over the unedited transcript of the interview as part of its investigation into whether the network violated the FCC's "news distortion" policy after a complaint was filed. CBS had refused to release the unedited transcript when the controversy first began.
The released raw transcript and footage showed that both sets of Harris' comments came from the same response, but CBS News had aired only the first half of her response in the "Face the Nation" preview clip and aired the second half during the primetime special.
"60 Minutes" executive producer Bill Owens, who at the time refused to apologize for the Harris interview, resigned last week citing corporate pressure preventing him from maintaining editorial independence.
White House communications director Steven Cheung mocked the interview at the center of the ordeal receiving an Emmy nomination.
"Of course it’s nominated for best editing because it takes some serious talent to edit Kamala’s answer into something that’s coherent and understandable, which in the end they still failed to do," Cheung told Fox News Digital.
Emmy nominees are judged by a "pool of more than 980 peer professionals from across the TV and streaming/digital media news and documentary industry," according to Deadline.