CBS News announced Friday that it is changing its interview policy after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused the network of deceptively editing her appearance on “Face the Nation” last weekend.
“In response to audience feedback over the past week, we have implemented a new policy for greater transparency,” CBS said in a statement, according to the New York Post.
“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 unedited video online,” the network said.
???? JUST IN: CBS News just announced it’s changing its interview taping rules in reaction to complaints from DHS Secretary @KristiNoem about deceptive editing.
According to a statement from a CBS spokesperson, Face The Nation will now only broadcast live or live to tape… pic.twitter.com/1WQF71UQoD
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) September 5, 2025
Following her appearance on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Noem posted on social media a video of what aired on the network, and what it later posted online, when she was discussing the administration’s decision to deport Salvadoran citizen Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
“This morning, I joined CBS to report the facts about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Instead, CBS shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth about this MS-13 gang member and the threat he poses to American public safety,” she wrote in her X post.
This morning, I joined CBS to report the facts about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Instead, CBS shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth about this MS-13 gang member and the threat he poses to American public safety.
Watch for the part of my interview that @CBS tried to… pic.twitter.com/28fsGZug48
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) August 31, 2025
What CBS aired to its approximately 2.3 million viewers was Noem saying, “One thing that we will continue to do is to make sure he doesn’t walk free in the United States of America.”
What the network cut out for its television audience was Noem continuing, “This individual was a known human smuggler, a 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,” Noem said. “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.”
BREAKING: @FoxNews has obtained an email ICE sent to Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers this afternoon notifying them that ICE now plans to deport him to the tiny African country of ESWATINI due to him claiming fear of persecution/torture in Uganda & 20+ other countries, which ICE… pic.twitter.com/qpPiE6ZeyB
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 5, 2025
CBS responded to Noem’s charge of manipulating the interview by saying the full version was available online in both video format and a transcript.
Critics countered that what the network puts on air goes before a much larger audience than its online formats.
In 2024, President Donald Trump sued CBS and its parent company, Paramount, over the network’s decision to edit a “60 Minutes” interview of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to cut out a rambling answer that she gave about Israel, replacing it with a comment she made at another point in the exchange.
????BREAKING: Paramount, CBS’s parent company, agrees to a $16 million settlement in President Trump’s lawsuit over the edited 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.
pic.twitter.com/aPrHJ3PVqp— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 2, 2025
Trump’s legal team argued in his suit that it was a violation of fairness rules under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
Paramount settled the case with the president in July for $16 million, which is designated to go toward his future presidential library.
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