A Tipping Point at CBS News
One Saturday last October, Rome Hartman, a longtime 60 Minutes producer, was in a van hurtling up I-95 toward New York City when a promo for an upcoming segment arrived in his inbox for review. Hartman, in his late sixties, had the understated gravitas and silver hair of an anchorman, though he’d spent his career behind the scenes. Most of the time, he’d been at CBS, including as a White House producer and running the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric; he’d also launched BBC World News America and helped oversee Rock Center with Brian Williams at NBC. He is affable, a steady hand. When the email came in, he was returning from Washington, DC, where his colleague Bill Whitaker, the CBS correspondent, had just completed an interview with Kamala Harris, the vice president and Democratic nominee.
Hartman, Whitaker, and a producer named Marc Lieberman rode together. They had a day to cut and polish the material before it was to air Monday night as a 60 Minutes election special. (Donald Trump had initially accepted an interview, as candidates from both parties had done with 60 Minutes since 1968, but then backed out.) In the teaser, taken from raw footage and slated to run the following morning on Face the Nation, Whitaker asked Harris why it appeared Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, was “not listening” to the United States. “Well, Bill,” Harris replied, “the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.” Bill Owens, the executive producer of 60 Minutes, had already signed off. Hartman, Whitaker, and Lieberman did the same. Then they got back to work and forgot about it.
When the special appeared, Hartman was pleased. “Bill really did a masterful job,” he said. “And that was noted in the immediate coverage after it aired.” Trump felt differently. “I’ve never seen this before, but the producers of 60 Minutes sliced and diced (‘cut and pasted’) Lyin’ Kamala’s answers to questions, which were virtually incoherent, over and over again,” he posted on Truth Social, his platform. It was “possibly illegal” and a “major Campaign Finance Violation,” he claimed. Trump accused Hartman and his team of deceptively editing the interview to make Harris look more presidential. He called for an immediate investigation and an apology.