CBS News announced a major editorial policy change after Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem accused the network of deceptively editing her interview with the network last week.
As reported on Monday’s AM Update the Department of Homeland Security released a statement accusing the network of having “selectively edited” a 16-minute and 20-second interview Noem gave Face the Nation guest host Ed O’Keefe. According to DHS, four minutes were removed from the piece that aired August 31 in an effort to “shamefully… whitewash the truth.”
While several exchanges had moments left on the cutting room floor, the most significant cut came during an answer Noem gave about so-called “Maryland man” Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The Edits
The Salvadoran national who has been credibly accused of MS-13 membership and various crimes is currently being held in an ICE detention facility in Farmville, Virginia, as he awaits trial on human trafficking charges in Tennessee after being returned to the United States from El Salvador in June. On CBS last week, O’Keefe pressed Secretary Noem about Abrego Garcia’s immigration status.
“Shouldn’t Abrego Garcia face trial on his charges before being deported again,” he asked.
This is what Face the Nation aired of Noem’s response: “And the one thing that we will continue to do is to make sure that he doesn’t walk free in the United States of America.”
As it turns out, that was a fraction of her actual answer. Secretary Noem later posted the rest of her thoughts to X. Watch:
In full, Noem said the following: “This individual was a known human smuggler, MS-13 gang member, an individual who was a wife beater, and someone who was so perverted that he solicited nude photos from minors. And even his fellow human traffickers told him to knock it off. He was so sick in what he was doing and how he was treating small children. So, he needs to never be in the United States of America and our administration is making sure we’re doing all that we can to bring him to justice.”
CBS About-Face
The network initially defended the edit in a statement to The Hill, claiming the interview “was edited for time and met all CBS News standards” and “the entire interview is publicly available on YouTube” while “the full transcript was posted early Sunday morning at cbsnews.com.”
Five days later, however, the network did an about-face in the wake of “audience feedback,” announcing it will “implement a new policy for greater transparency in our interviews.”
“Face the Nation will now only broadcast live or live-to-tape interviews (subject to national security or legal restrictions),” the broadcaster said. “This extra measure means the television audience will see the full, unedited interview on CBS and we will continue our practice of posting full transcripts and the unedited video online.”
The change comes just months after CBS News’ parent company Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit with President Donald Trump over a 60 Minutes interview he says was deceptively edited to favor then-Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 election.
It also came just weeks after new owners took over Paramount and signaled changes to the direction of the legacy news network.
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