CBS News got more than it bargained for when it arranged for an interview earlier this week between President Donald Trump and anchor Tony Dokoupil on his still-nascent tenure on “CBS Evening News.”
According to a report published Saturday by The New York Times, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told producers and the anchor that Trump did not want the exchange edited. “He said, ‘Make sure you don’t cut the tape, make sure the interview is out in full,’ Leavitt told Dokoupil and his executive producer, Kim Harvey. “He said, ‘If it’s not out in full, we’ll sue your ass off.’”
Such behavior is not unexpected when it comes to the Trump administration. Trump won a $16 million settlement from CBS News’ parent company, Paramount, after he he sued over the way a “60 Minutes” interview with former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris was edited in 2024. Legal experts felt Trump’s suit lacked merit, but Paramount was in a squeeze — it needed U.S. regulatory approval to sell itself to its new owner, now called Paramount Skydance. Trump has also won legal fees from Walt Disney Co., and worked to entangle other media outlets in legal skirmishes, including The Wall Street Journal and the BBC. Paramount’s decision led in part to the exit of two senior CBS News executives with oversight of “60 Minutes” and other operations.
In a statement Saturday, CBS News said Leavitt’s demands were not a factor in its decision to present Doukopil’s 13-minute long interview with Trump, at a Ford plant in Michigan, in full: “The moment we booked this interview we made the independent decision to air it unedited and in its entirety.”
Even so, CBS News has caved to a similar demand in the past, a move that can be seen to sacrifice its journalistic independence. In September, CBS News agreed to stop editing taped interviews with newsmakers who appear on its Sunday public-affairs program “Face the Nation” following complaints from the Trump administration over an appearance on the show by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. She made made a number of false or unproven statements during her intervifew about Kilmar Abergo Garcia, the Salvadoran man who was deported despite his having protected legal status in the United States. CBS News offered just a portion of the overall interview with Noem and made the full exchange available online.
The Trump threat comes even as CBS News has worked to give administration officials more time on its programs. Under recently installed editor in chief Bari Weiss, both “CBS Evening News” and “60 Minutes” have found more room for talks with officials including U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, for example, who spoke with Doukopil for three segments of a weekend broadcast following a U.S. military incursion on Venezuela. “60 Minutes” offered a report in October that had U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner, offer insight into an effort to end recent conflicts in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
The threat from the White House was issued as Paramount Skydance is jockeying to acquire the media assets of Warner Bros. Discovery, even though that company has already brokered a deal to sell its streaming and studio operations to Netflix. Such a pact will also require regulatory approval.
