’60 Minutes’ Takes Heat For Standard Practice: Trimming An Interview For Time

By Alex Weprin 

Some blogs and news outlets are criticizing CBS News for cutting out of last night’s “60 Minutes” a statement by President Obama regarding some of his campaign ads. Obama said that some of the ads “go overboard,” and may contain statements that aren’t true.

WATCH:

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CBS, as it usually does with big newsmaker interviews, posted the clip on its site, 60MinutesOvertime.com. While the critics would have readers believe that CBS cut out the segment to try and carry water for the President, the truth, as usual, is much more boring. Both Obama and Mitt Romney had long interviews with CBS, and both had to be chopped extensively for time. Anything that didn’t make it into the broadcast was posted online.

Or as a spokesperson for ’60 Minutes’ explained to Politico:

The decision is not curious, according to the network, which filled the hour with excerpts from the two interviews and was happy to promote content online. “We covered a lot of ground with both men and we’re happy to be able to put some of that material on our popular Web cast 60MinutesOvertime,” Kevin Tedesco, a spokesperson for ’60 Minutes’ and CBS News told POLITICO.

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