US election campaign: Trump is suing US broadcaster CBS News for damages

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against US broadcaster CBS News. He accuses the media company of manipulating an interview with his opponent Kamala Harris in favor of the Democrat, according to the relevant court document. Accordingly, Trump is demanding ten billion US dollars in damages (around nine billion euros). The calculation behind the choice of a court in Texas could be that the case will be assigned to a conservative judge. The chances of success are still considered slim – it is more likely to be a political move shortly before the presidential election on November 5th.

The dispute was sparked at the beginning of October by an interview with Harris on the political show “60 Minutes,” in which she was asked about Israel. CBS aired two different excerpts of her response on two consecutive days. This segmentation led to accusations from Trump’s supporters that CBS intentionally portrayed Harris in a more favorable light. Trump’s lawyers then demanded that the full interview transcript be released, but CBS refused. The broadcaster rejected the allegations of manipulation and explained that such segmentation was common in order to adhere to the broadcast’s time frame.

US courts have granted extensive editorial freedom to media outlets in the past. These are particularly strongly protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which explicitly protects freedom of the press. In this context, CBS emphasized that editorial decisions are part of journalistic freedom.