In latest response to video-splicing controversy, CBS News acknowledges error but falsely claims it did not "in any way distort" McCain's comments

Summary: In a statement reported by The Washington Post on July 24, CBS News now acknowledges that it erred in splicing video of an interview with Sen. John McCain that resulted in the expungement of a false statement made by McCain and the misleading inclusion of an answer McCain gave to a different question. But in the reported statement, CBS News senior VP Paul Friedman maintains, falsely, that the error "did not in any way distort what Senator McCain was saying."

CBS News now reportedly acknowledges that it erred in splicing video of an interview with Sen. John McCain, in which the network expunged a false statement made by McCain and included an answer he gave to a different question from the one he was purportedly answering. But, according to a July 24 Washington Post article, CBS News senior vice president Paul Friedman maintains, falsely, that the video as aired did not misrepresent what McCain said.

The Post reported that Friedman issued the following statement: "The report was edited under extreme time constraints and one piece of tape was put in the wrong order. Fortunately, this did not in any way distort what Senator McCain was saying."

CBS News' initial response to the controversy, as reported by Politico senior political writer Ben Smith, included no such admission of error. According to Smith, CBS spokeswoman Jennifer Farley stated: "As all news organizations do with extended interviews, last night's Obama and McCain interviews were edited to fit the available time and to give viewers a fair expression of the candidates' major differences."

But contrary to Friedman's assertion that the video compilation "did not in any way distort what Senator McCain was saying," the editing of the interview did, in fact, distort McCain's comments by expunging his false statement, as Media Matters for America has documented. On the CBS Evening News, Couric aired comments by McCain spliced together from three separate statements he gave during the interview -- one of which responded to a different question -- rather than airing McCain's direct reply to her question, which included McCain's false claim that the 2007 U.S. troop surge in Iraq "began the Anbar Awakening" -- an agreement by some tribal leaders in western Iraq to accept U.S. aid and cooperate with anti-Al Qaeda operations. In fact, the Anbar Awakening reportedly began in September 2006, months before the surge was even announced.

—M.G.