A “60 Minutes” correspondent defended CBS News' controversial decision to air an edited version of an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris last week, but declined to comment on whether the full transcript should be released.
“There are certain things that are edited in every story,” Jon Wertheim said Wednesday on the sports podcast “Nie @Me with Dan Dakich” on OutKick.com.
In addition to his work as a correspondent for “60 Minutes,” Wertheim is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and a commentator for “The Tennis Channel.”
“You do these interviews and '60 Minutes' episodes that are about 13 minutes and 10 seconds long, right?” – Wertheim said. “You spend hours, sometimes days and days, on a topic and, you know, you boil it down to 13 minutes.”
Wertheim declined to say whether the full transcript of the interview conducted by “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker should be published, saying it was “above (his) pay grade.”
He argued that there were some statements in the transcripts that didn't make sense and that news stations often eliminated unflattering responses.
“It happens every time you do an interview on 60 Minutes.” Someone says, “You know what, can you ask me that again?” I don't like the way it turned out,” Wertheim said. “As an empathetic person, you don't put their first response there.”
CBS faced a barrage of criticism for airing an edited version of Harris' response to U.S. relations with Israel on Oct. 7 after airing her “word salad” response to the same question during a commercial for an upcoming special on CBS' “Face the Nation” the day before.
The editorial decision raised questions about whether CBS executives had begun to suppress Harris's more convoluted responses.
Wertheim argued that major news networks – along with newspapers – regularly make editorial choices to save time and space, or cherry-pick the most influential quotes.
“When you wrote a story, you wouldn't edit it, make choices, or include selective quotes?” – Wertheim said. “When are editorial choices not made in the media?”
Dakich, the podcast's host, said the media constantly runs clips of interviews that paint guests in a bad light. Dakich said that he regretted one of his answers after the previous interview, but the media did not agree to withdraw it.
“I think people think that 60 Minutes and the mainstream media are trying to make Kamala Harris look good instead of showing who Kamala Harris actually was in this interview,” Dakich said.
Wertheim, however, argued that “60 Minutes” did not change any of Harris' answers.
“Nothing was fabricated,” Wertheim said. “You just make editorial decisions to fit the times.”
Harris' campaign has sought to distance itself from the online editorial controversy.
“We do not control CBS's production decisions and we refer questions to CBS,” a Harris campaign adviser told multiple outlets, including Fox News and Variety.
Former President Donald Trump and his campaign called on CBS to release the full transcript of the interview.
“Why did 60 Minutes decide not to air Kamala's full word salad and what else did it choose not to air?” Trump 2024 national press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously told The Post in a statement. “The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript of Kamala's interview.”
