On Friday, TechFreedom responded to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) request for comment on whether CBS’s editing of 45 minutes of raw footage into a 20-minute segment of “60 Minutes” constitutes news distortion. The Commission should recognize that any attempts to nitpick a broadcaster’s edits are antithetical to conservative principles and to the First Amendment. 

“This is a stark contrast from when Republicans championed the First Amendment rights of broadcasters,” said Jim Dunstan, TechFreedom’s Senior Counsel. “Every so often, something akin to the Fairness Doctrine is floated as a cure to the wounds of messy political discourse. But each time, strong Republican leadership has exposed that such measures always contravene the First Amendment and can be all too easily weaponized for political purposes. It was a Republican FCC Chairman, Dennis Patrick, who finally struck it down the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, and it was Ronald Reagan who vetoed a Democrat-led congressional attempt to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine by statute. The GOP-led FCC should return to conservative principles and realize it is in no position to decide what counts as the right balance of private expression.”

“If the new standard for triggering a news distortion analysis is any edits of raw interview video, the FCC will be faced with thousands of news distortion complaints,” Dunstan continued. “Since every taped interview is edited, every taped interview that is aired will be ripe for an FCC complaint, which will have to be adjudicated. The news distortion complaint process will be weaponized by both political parties, and the business of the FCC will grind to a screeching halt.”

“The marketplace of ideas worked far better than government micromanagement ever could,” Dunstan concluded. “Astute listeners and commentators seized upon the discrepancy between the teasers and what actually aired during 60 Minutes. CBS and the Harris Campaign were called out, long before the transcript and raw video was released. Why now should the FCC invest its finite resources in determining whether the way CBS edited raw footage violated news distortion policies? Especially since any challenge brought against CBS in court will ultimately fall on First Amendment grounds.”

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TechFreedom is a nonprofit, nonpartisan technology policy think tank. We work to chart a path forward for policymakers towards a bright future where technology enhances freedom, and freedom enhances technology.

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