According to Deadline, CBS News has stated that Face the Nation will only broadcast live or live-to-tape interviews following Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem‘s (The Missing and Murdered: A Ride of Remembrance, From Power to Prison: The Trump Story, Part II) complaints over edits made to her appearance on the show on Sunday.
“In response to audience feedback over the past week, we have implemented a new policy for greater transparency in our interviews,” a CBS News spokesperson said today via Deadline. “Face the Nation will now only broadcast live or live-to-tape interviews subject to national security or legal restrictions. 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.”
As per Deadline, Face the Nation has published full transcripts and unedited interviews online but Noem has stated that the broadcast shamefully edited an interview were she made allegations about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the undocumented immigrant who has been at the center of much coverage about the Donald Trump (The Apprentice, Miss Universe Pageant) administration’s deportation efforts. She complains that CBS News had allegedly edited the interview in which they tried “to whitewash the truth about this MS-13 gang member and the threat he poses to American public safety.”
According to Deadline, Noem then posted video of her unaired response, in which she said of Abrego Garcia, “This individual was a known human smuggler, MS-13 gang member, an individual who’s 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.”
As per Deadline, the new policy will put the onus on Face the Nation moderators to fact-check guests in real time. Ed O’Keefe (Mystic River, Me, Myself & Irene) had conducted the Noem interview and was filling in for regular host Margaret Brennan (CBS Mornings, The CBS Evening News). Face the Nation did post a transcript and video of the unedited interview on its website on Sunday. It included an editor’s note about the portion cut from the broadcast. “Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been charged with two counts of human smuggling and has pleaded not guilty. He is currently in ICE detention pending trial. He has not been charged with any counts related to child abuse,” the note read.
According to Deadline, the new policy comes following Skydance’s recently completed merger with CBS parent Paramount. The regulatory approval of the merger was complicated by President Donald Trump‘s lawsuit against the network over the editing of another interview, a 60 Minutes segment featuring Kamala Harris (Almanac, Kamala Harris: 100 Days Out) from October.