CBS Announces a New Policy for Editing Interviews After Sec. Noem Complains

On Tuesday Ed wrote about Sec. Kristi Noem’s complaint about unfair editing by CBS’ Face the Nation. Noem appeared on the show Sunday where she was asked about efforts to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Here’s what she said.

ED O’KEEFE:  One of the most high profile examples of someone who’s been rounded up by ICE in recent months is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and the fate of his situation is still up in the air. He’s awaiting trial on human smuggling charges set for January in Tennessee, but your department is also working to get him deported to Uganda. If he broke the law in this country, as the administration alleges, shouldn’t he be held here and face charges here instead of being deported?

SEC. NOEM: Well, prosecution decisions are always made by the Department of Justice and in Pam Bondi’s department, so we will let them do that. Although this individual does have criminal charges pending. He has charges pending against him civilly as well, and the one thing that we will continue to do is to make sure that he doesn’t walk free in the United States of America. This individual was a known human smuggler, 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, 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.*

Notice the asterisk at the end of her statement. We’ll come back to that in a moment. What CBS actually aired was an edited version of her remarks that left out most of her statement about 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.

Watch for the part of my interview that @CBS tried to… pic.twitter.com/28fsGZug48

— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) August 31, 2025

Today, CBS announced a response to those allegations that it was unfairly editing Sec. Noem. The network now says it will no longer edit pre-taped interviews for broadcast.

CBS News’ “Face the Nation” will no longer edit taped interviews after U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem complained about how her remarks were cut in her last appearance on the Washington-based program.

The news division said Friday that the Sunday show moderated by Margaret Brennan will only present interviews live or “live to tape” in which no edits are made. Exceptions will be made when classified national security information is inadvertently stated or language is used that violates Federal Communications Commission broadcast standards.

“In response to audience feedback over the past week, we have implemented a new policy for greater transparency in our interviews,” a CBS News representative said in a statement. “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 the unedited video online.”

 CBS obviously has a history with the Trump administration and editing of interviews.

The parent company of CBS, Paramount, recently paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by President Trump over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview that aired last year with Kamala Harris, Mr. Trump’s presidential opponent.

The settlement came shortly before the Trump administration approved a sale of Paramount to a Hollywood studio, Skydance, which now controls the network and its news division.

So the real question here is why this happened. Was CBS looking to protect Abrego Garcia’s reputation as a “Maryland Man.” That’s possible, even likely, but I think CBS may have had another motive. Getting back to that asterisk in CBS’s transcript of the interview. If you scroll down the page, the asterisk leads to this statement about the charges Abrego Garcia is facing.

*Editor’s note: Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been charged with two counts of human smuggling and has pleaded not guilty. He is currently in ICE detention pending trial. He has not been charged with any counts related to child abuse.

This is something that other outlets have made a point of fact-checking.

Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, filed protective orders against him in 2020 and 2021. In the orders, Vasquez Sura said Abrego Garcia had slapped, punched and bruised her.

A few days after filing the 2020 protective order, Vasquez Sura, filed an order rescinding it, citing her son’s birthday and saying Abrego Garcia had agreed to go to counseling…

Bondi has floated a connection between Abrego Garcia and other crimes, without filing charges.

In June 6 remarks, Bondi said, “A coconspirator alleged that the defendant solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor. A coconspirator also alleges the defendant played a role in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother.”

These allegations don’t appear on the indictment, but they were mentioned in the government’s motion for detention, which said it learned that Abrego Garcia “solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor, beginning in approximately 2020.”

So the basic defense of Abrego Garcia is that 

• You can’t prove his tattoos are a reference to MS-13.
• He’s been charged with human smuggling, not human trafficking.
• He pleaded not guilty and hasn’t been convicted.
• His wife retracted her claims that he beat her up.
• Claims about him soliciting nudes are hearsay and haven’t been tested in court.

In short, he sounds like a real dirt bag, but he hasn’t been convicted of anything so stop being so mean to him.

I’d bet CBS saw these edits to Noem’s response as a form of fact-checking, though they won’t admit that now. In any case, it works out to the same thing. CBS winds up portraying this guy as just an innocent Maryland Man by removing any comments to the contrary.

Should CBS News be doing this? I don’t think so. It would be one thing to take speculative claims from randos on the internet and air those on Face the Nation. That would be irresponsible and unfair. But if the Sec. of Homeland Security thinks Abrego Garcia is a criminal and cites charges and statements used in court, CBS should step back and let her talk.

Of course, if CBS needed to cut the 16 minute interview down to 12 minutes for time, as they initially claimed, they could cut out an entire question or two on some unrelated topic. But cutting off the speaker’s response midstream without even letting the audience know you’ve done so would never fly in a presidential debate and shouldn’t fly here. Today’s decision to stop editing interviews for content is probably a good one mostly because CBS can’t be trusted to play fair in the editing room.

• Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.

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