The scandal that has engulfed CBS over the fake interview Kamala Harris has turbocharged fears that the Democrat is being herded into the White House by a liberal media that is increasingly desperate to cover up her flaws.
Since Harris was unseated, the presidential race has been dogged by allegations of media bias against Joe Biden as the Democrat chooses after his disastrous debate with Donald Trump in June.
In addition to glowing magazine profiles and softball interviews with handpicked reporters, the vice president has largely ignored the media exposure that candidates traditionally allow.
But the CBS debacle crystallized the fear that a lying media was conspiring to avoid it, determined not to let what happened to Biden happen to her.
“Without a teleprompter, he is almost completely unable to speak without prompting,” she added. Fox NewsSean Hannity said over the weekend. “And now state media is doing everything in its power to save a campaign that is starting to deteriorate.”
Kamala Harris made friends when she appeared on ABC's The View, where she was interviewed by Ana Navarro, who appeared on stage at the DNC
Thanks! Harris found a CBS drinking buddy in Stephen Colbert on The Late Show
On July 24, Harris announced her candidacy to succeed her boss in the White House, but more than a month before she gave her first sit-down interview, choosing CNN for a half-hour chat and bringing along her chosen vice president, Tim Walz, for support.
Bash, a CNN loyalist who has worked at the liberal network since college, was accused of failing to deliver any major blows.
Vogue magazine, in a favorable profile, hailed her as “the candidate of our times.”
Daily Mail columnist Andrew Neil said Harris had “given up on covering up Biden's cognitive decline” and added that CNN gave a “masterclass on how not to hold politicians accountable.”
GOP polling guru Frank Luntz tweeted: “Many people think Kamala Harris did well in this interview. I disagree – it will be easy for a good debater to challenge her.
ABC heeded this warning as the September 10 presidential debate against Donald Trump approached.
The statement, citing the whistleblower, said the hosting network asked Harris questions ahead of the Sept. 10 debate and agreed to a number of preconditions.
The document, an affidavit signed by a notary the day before the debate, says the network asked Harris questions in advance while agreeing to a number of other preconditions that would give the vice president an advantage over Trump.
Harris answered questions on Alex Cooper's sex-centric podcast “Call Her Daddy”
Harris' husband, Doug, was accused of punching his ex-girlfriend in the face so hard that she turned away, but no one questioned the case
Comedian Howard Stern told her, “You've got to win,” when she agreed to the interview
Questions about Harris' work as California attorney general were prohibited during the debate, as were any questions about her brother-in-law Tony West, according to claims in the document.
ABC denied these claims, but viewers saw for themselves that moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir fact-checked Trump five times and never corrected him.
Muir sharply criticized Trump's claim that crime has increased under the Biden-Harris administration, stating: “As you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is down in this country.”
A Justice Department data audit later found that violent crimes increased 37 percent from 2020 to 2023, rapes increased 42 percent and robberies increased 63 percent.
They were both happy that Harris denied ever supporting transgender surgery on behalf of undocumented migrants before it was revealed that she had bragged to the ACLU that she had actually helped with such an operation.
Even the New York Times later confirmed that Trump's “wildest-sounding line of attack” was “basically true.”
With her ordeal over, Harris was able to sit back and bask in the adulation of the media celebrating her rise as the first black woman to secure the Democratic nomination.
The former California attorney general has been hailed as a magazine icon, beaming from the newsstands on the covers of Vogue, the New Yorker and Time.
Her boutique approach to interviews led her to favor influencers over reporters and avoid hostile scrutiny.
The former California attorney general has been hailed as a magazine icon, beaming from newsstands on the covers of Vogue, New Yorker and Time
CBS News is facing huge criticism after the network edited Harris's response on “60 Minutes” into a “word salad” to supposedly portray her more positively
“I'm really nervous,” comedian and podcaster Howard Stern told her as they sat down for his SiriusXM show, “because I want you to do well.”
“Even when I watch 'Saturday Night Live,' where they do this Maja Rudolf toying with you, I hate it. I don't want you to be made fun of.
“You have to win,” he demanded. “You just have to… Like, the sun will go out forever.”
The leisurely interviews continued Sunday, leading up to an appearance on Alex Cooper's sex-centric podcast “Call Her Daddy,” where the host allowed the vice president to repeat her typical comments about abortion rights and student debt.
“I'm very disappointed, it looks like propaganda and an attempt to make them look like Generation Z,” wrote one of the listeners. “One day you'll look back on this and regret it when we're at war because of her.”
But Harris braved the TV studios and appeared on ABC's The View with Ana Navarro, who appeared on stage at the DNC.
The presenters, flanked by Sunny Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg, tried to ask her gentle questions, but even those seemed to take her aback, including one about how her presidency would be different from Joe Biden's.
“We're obviously two different people,” she countered, before admitting, “I can't think of anything.”
After killing those interviewers, she felt relaxed enough to cut out Stephen Colbert's Late Show, where she drank beer with the host and pitched her vision to CBS viewers.
“If I were elected president, it would be about, um, I… I love the American people and I believe in our country,” she revealed.
“I love the fact that it is in our character and nature to be ambitious people. Of course, we have aspirations and dreams.
“We are, we – we have an incredible work ethic and – and I just believe that we can create and build on the success that we have achieved in such a way that we will continue to expand opportunities and in that way develop the strength of our nation.
The network's nerves with Harris' campaign extend to its vice president, Tim Walz, who saw CBS cut off the microphone of his opponent J.D. Vance during the vice presidential debate.
And no one granted access to Harris and Doug Emhoff saw fit to dispute the DailyMail.com report that the vice president's husband hit his ex-girlfriend in the head.
On MSNBC – a station where one employee recently admitted was just an arm of Kamala's campaign – “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough asked Emhoff if he had “pissed him off” with “tabloid stories about (his) personal life.”
Emhoff did not deny hitting his ex-girlfriend. Scarborough didn't press him for an answer either.
“It's all a distraction,” Emhoff said. “It's designed to throw us off our game.”
But nerves are fading as the campaign continues into its final days, and renegade staffers increasingly make their presence known to a media industry that appears determined to move Harris to the White House.
Trump accused CBS of “election interference” as a failure after her interview with Bill Whitaker on “60 Minutes” continues to unfold.
The host asked her if she was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was listening to the US and whether the administration had any influence on Israel's decision-making in its Hamas conflict in Gaza.
The network aired a trailer of her response, which appeared on Sunday's Face the Nation show and was uploaded to YouTube.
“Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of Israeli moves in this region that have been largely driven by or as a result of many things, including our support for what needs to happen in the region,” she replied.
But when the interview itself aired on Monday, viewers received a more clear answer.
“We will not stop doing what is necessary for the United States to clearly state its position on the need to end this war,” she seemed to succinctly declare.
CBS News cut off microphones when moderators Norah O'Donnell (left) and Margaret Brennan (right) tried to shut down J.D. Vance during the vice presidential debate
The official CBS News standards guide emphasizes that “answers to different questions may not be combined to appear as one continuous answer.”
“We can't create an answer just because we want the entity to say it better,” he adds.
The network is alleged to have done just that, even though it declined to release a transcript of the hearing.
Former CBS reporter Catherine Herridge was among those who pointed out that the network happily released the transcript of her 2020 meeting with Donald Trump, tweeting that the transcripts were “about transparency and stands behind the integrity of the final edit.”
As pressure mounted, the former president expressed what he believed many viewers were currently thinking about media coverage of their presidential race.
“'60 Minutes' is a major part of the CBS news organization that just created the biggest fraud in broadcasting history,” he wrote on Twitter.
“CBS should lose its license and should be auctioned off to the highest bidder like all other broadcast licenses because they are just as corrupt as CBS – maybe even WORSE!”
