‘60 Minutes’ devoted lots of time to aiding Democrats over the years

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In a New York Times podcast interview, fired CBS correspondent Scott Pelley claimed to be utterly nonplussed at the idea that people thought CBS was biased, as editor-in-chief Bari Weiss suggested. He said he told her: “Do you have a poll? Is there market research? What are you talking about? We felt that she was making statements that she couldn’t back up and was coming into the news division with hardened preconceived notions that didn’t seem to be thought through.”

Pelley is fooling no one outside the liberal-media bubble. To most people, it sounds like former CBS anchor Dan Rather claiming he’s never mangled a fact, like you couldn’t possibly find evidence that he had. But now, Rather’s out there claiming “the president and the corporate billionaires who curry his favor have eviscerated the best news program in the world.”

That’s poppycock. We’ve long known “60 Minutes” as a prestigious news brand that’s used and abused by Democrats to promote their campaigns.

When I came up in the media-watchdog business, it started with how “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft helped the Clintons negotiate around the Gennifer Flowers adultery scandal at a crucial make-or-break moment in 1992. He asked if Bill had cheated, and Hillary broke out a fake Southern accent and said she wasn’t just going to stand by her man like Tammy Wynette. (But she did.)

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When the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke out in 1998, CBS played previously unseen excerpts of that 1992 interview, where Hillary claimed their adultery problems were “between us. … We don’t owe anyone else besides each other the honesty that we’ve tried to bring as we worked these problems out,” and then she added this whopper: “The voters are tired of people that lie to them.” They clearly weren’t.

Kroft then performed five interviews with candidate Barack Obama before the 2008 election, starting with one cued up to his campaign kickoff. On Feb. 11, 2007, Kroft compared Obama to President Abraham Lincoln, and Kroft suggested Obama was a media darling, but not because he was liberal: “Propelled by the media hungry for a fresh face and a good story, he has graced the covers of Time and Newsweek, the pages of Men’s Vogue, and has been endorsed by Oprah.”

In 2008, Kroft told Obama: “One of the things we found in southern Ohio – not widespread, but something that popped up on our radar screen all the time, people talking about it, this idea that you’re a Muslim.” Obama asked: “Did you correct them, Steve?” Kroft said, “I did correct them,” and then asked, “Where’s it coming from?”

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Obama explained that it was a “systematic e-mail smear campaign,” and said, “I have never been a Muslim, am not a Muslim,” but asserted he was “a devout Christian who’s been going to the same church for the last 20 years.” Despite that cue, Kroft never mentioned Obama’s ties to controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his wild assertions like America deserved 9/11. Kroft avoided the subject of Reverend Wright in all five interviews.

After the election, CBS created an Obama-promoting DVD called “Obama All Access: Barack Obama’s Road to the White House.” CBS used this promotional lingo to lure Obama supporters: “See the candidate making sandwiches for his young daughters, the rising political superstar on the campaign trail, the confident candidate poised for victory, and the president-elect with his future first lady reflecting publicly for the first time on the fact that they will be the first African-American couple to occupy the White House.”

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In 2012, Kroft performed another gushy interview with Obama and outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – because Obama asked him to do it. In 2016, Pelley interviewed Hillary Clinton and her running mate Tim Kaine, and this was the toughest question about four Americans dying in an Islamic terrorist attack in Libya: “What’s your responsibility for Benghazi? Did you make any mistakes around that?” She replied: “Well, Scott, there have been, I think now, nine separate investigations. And they did not find any such culpability.”

In 2022, Pelley warmly nudged President Joe Biden: “You have lived a long life of triumph and tragedy. In November, you’ll be 80. And I wonder what it is that keeps you in the arena.” Seconds later, Biden pulled out his rosary ring so Pelley could tout him as “Catholic and devout.” The pro-abortion, pro-transgender devout Catholic.

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In October 2023, Pelley told viewers the president was “asking for billions of dollars for Israel and Ukraine, Congress is paralyzed. Hard-right Republicans are obstructing the election of a speaker of the House.” He asked Biden: “Does the dysfunction that we’ve seen in Congress increase the danger in the world?” Why, yes, Biden replied, the Republicans are dangerous.

With this record, you would wonder why President Donald Trump or any other Republican would consider “60 Minutes” to be a worthy place to be interviewed. Actually granting an interview is never appreciated and is like inviting an enemy into your territory. Because Democrats all claim “60 Minutes” is the “best news program in the world.” It is … for promoting Democrats.

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Tim Graham is the Executive Editor of NewsBusters.org and co-author with Brent Bozell of “Unmasked: Big Media’s War Against Trump.”

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