60 Minutes Editing Deception? Nothing New Here
The internet is ablaze with controversy over CBS’ decision to edit their recent interview with Kamala Harris. It was, depending on whom you listen to, either a normal effort to improve clarity, or a naked attempt to make a presidential candidate look better than she actually did in the interview.
This takes me back to 1987, during my career with FMC Corporation. Among the many products we produced was the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, used by the Army for ground combat operations. It was an armored, tracked vehicle, capable of “swimming” across small bodies of water. Tragically, though, it sank in an exercise in Germany, and we lost a soldier.
As reported by the Washington Post at the time: “George M. Wilson, 19, of Indianapolis drowned March 24 when the Bradley he was driving fell into a water-filled sinkhole on a training field in Germany. As icy water poured into the huge vehicle’s cavity through open hatches, Wilson was unable to escape through the closed hatch above his seat or the door behind it, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Craig C. MacNab said”.
Later that year we learned that 60 Minutes was doing a feature on the Bradley, and this drowning in particular. We all were very concerned about how CBS would frame the story, and then something very usual occurred. It seemed that 60 Minutes was beaming the final footage from Mami to New York on the day before broadcast. One of our employees in the Carolinas was working at his hobby of scanning the skies for radio and communication traffic, and he managed to pick up – and record! – the entire program! The next morning, Sunday, our CEO had a letter in The NY Times protesting the conclusions CBS had drawn – even before the story ran that night.
I watched the 60 Minutes program that evening, and have tried unsuccessfully to find it on old YouTube videos. But the key exchange between our Program Manager and the CBS correspondent (Morley Safer I think, but cannot be positive) went something like this:
CBS: “It sounds from this data that you barely met the minimum safety levels specified in the Bradley contract”.
FMC: “That is correct.”
Cut. That was it, a seeming admission of guilt or near-guilt, for all to see.
But we had the full interview tape in our possession, and we were able to view it on Monday morning in the office. Here is my recall of the full version of that exchange:
CBS: “It sounds from this data that you barely met the minimum safety levels specified in the Bradley contract”.
FMC: “That is correct. The goal of defense contracting is to meet or exceed the minimum specifications, but not to exceed the maximum cost specified. Simply put, we need to aim for the narrow window of performance and cost”.
Did CBS edit this key exchange for clarity or to promote an agenda? This is the same question people are asking about the Kamala Harris interview.
We had the full footage in 1987. CBS can provide the same today, and let people make up their their own minds. Personally, I never took a 60 Minutes report at face value after 1987.