Debora Patta, a prominent South African journalist laid off last week by CBS News, is “now looking to sue” the Tiffany Network, according to the New York Post. The ouster of Patta, who as a CBS News “senior foreign correspondent” was harshly critical of Israel, comes a few months after the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, accused her of selectively editing an interview she did with him about the war in Gaza.
“She is probably looking to sue over her Middle East coverage,” a former CBS News staffer told the Post.
During the contentious Huckabee interview, which aired in early August on multiple CBS News platforms, the ambassador came across as insensitive to starving children and defensive when Patta claimed to him there was no proof Hamas was looting aid trucks.
Shortly after the interview aired, Huckabee published an unedited transcript of his interview, asking, on X, “Ever wonder how the media edits an interview to give you a different story than the one they had?”
Patta’s supporters within CBS News—which prior to a management shake-up last month had a long history of anti-Israel sentiment—claim her Gaza reporting was “fearless” and that she was laid off in retaliation for challenging Huckabee over the hunger and aid situation in Gaza.
But the contretemps is one of four recent controversies in which CBS News was accused of selectively editing pre-taped interviews to make Democrats look good and Republicans bad. Most notably, President Donald Trump sued CBS over its early October 2024 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, which producers edited in a way that made her sound more coherent. The controversial lawsuit was settled for $16 million, which Trump’s detractors claimed was a bribe to win approval of CBS parent Paramount Global’s acquisition by Skydance.
This was not, however, the only time in the last year that CBS News’s editing of pre-taped segments was called to account. About a week after the 60 Minutes Harris interview aired, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) accused CBS News of editing out comments he made on Face the Nation criticizing Harris (then in the final weeks of her presidential campaign) and then-president Joe Biden of mishandling relief efforts for Hurricane Helene victims.
“CBS has been under fire for selectively editing their interviews to PROMOTE Democrats and UNDERMINE Republicans,” Johnson wrote on X. CBS did not apologize, but released the full transcript. At the time, CBS was resisting releasing the full transcript of the Harris interview, which would not be made public until February, when the election was over and Trump’s FCC demanded the transcript’s release.
Then, in late August, Face the Nation producers removed a section from a pretaped interview with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in which she referred to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the illegal Salvadoran migrant who has become a liberal cause célèbre, as an MS-13 gang member, wife beater, and sexual pervert. In the ensuing firestorm, CBS’s new management said that Face the Nation would no longer edit pretaped interviews.
Patta’s interview with Huckabee came about three weeks before the Noem interview, but is coming under renewed scrutiny following Patta’s firing.
A comparison of the edited version of the interview with the transcript released by the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem shows that Patta eliminated key quotes, mischaracterizing many of Huckabee’s responses as a result. His complete answers paint a markedly different picture of his stance on hunger in Gaza than the one CBS News showed its viewers.
Below are some notable before-and-after examples of how Patta’s “fearless” editing changed the nature and tone of the original interview.
On Genocide
Perhaps the most glaring omission comes when Patta asks Huckabee whether Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. The interview cuts off after he says, “If Israel is attempting genocide, they’re really, really bad at it. They could have had genocide on October the eighth.”
But in reality, Huckabee went on to outright call the notion “absurd.”
“They could have dropped a few bombs and have annihilated all Gazans, it’s not that big an area. They certainly had the capacity to do it, and saw that in the 12-day war with Iran,” he said. “It is the most ridiculous thing in the world to say that Israel is committing genocide. That’s absurd. On its face, it’s absurd. If they were trying to commit genocide, it would not have taken them 22 months.”
On Aid Site Shootings
At one point, the edited interview shows Huckabee asking for evidence when Patta claims that “every single day, there are people dying near [U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation] sites.”
“So you have no reports of anybody being killed near a GHF site?” Patta asks.
“No, we’ve had reports that there have been incidents,” Huckabee replies as the camera cuts back to Patta for a few seconds.
“But forgive me if I’m a little skeptical and someone says these people are being killed in the GHF sites,” he continues, with the camera turning back to him. “I’m getting reports every day from them, every single day. If I would hear that, I assure you we’d be interested in getting the details. And if there was some random shooting of people who are coming for food, those people would be consequent severely.”
While his answer sounded seamless, the camera cutting away from Huckabee was actually a stealthy editing move that allowed CBS to eliminate a crucial part of his answer. According to the transcript, Huckabee called out fake reports of deaths and injuries.
“No, we’ve had reports that there have been incidents, but we’ve also had reports one day that there were 27 people killed at a GHF site,” Huckabee said. “We had the video to show that no one was even injured, much less killed.”
“But it went all over the world, the New York Times, the Washington Post, BBC, CNN all reported it [and it] turned out as a total hoax,” he continued. “It’s never happened. Did those media companies come back, some of them with a tiny little correction in the fine print, but the story went out there that 27 people had been murdered at the GHF side. It never happened. So forgive me if I’m a little skeptical and someone says these people are being killed in the GHF sites.”
On Images of Starving Children
According to the edited version of the interview, when Patta asked if Huckabee was “deeply troubled by images of starving children,” it shows the former Arkansas governor saying he’s “moved when the photos are verified” and that he believes “there are certainly people suffering in Gaza.”
But the transcript shows Patta omitted Huckabee’s explanation that phony and misleading photos have repeatedly circulated.
“I mean, we’re all moved when you see someone, especially a child, who’s starving,” he said. “But the New York Times published a picture on the front page of what was purported to be a starving child. Turns out the child had a birth defect and had not been starving.”
“There were other pictures, for example, that were published of starving children in Gaza,” Huckabee added. “Turned out one of them was from Yemen. One was from 2017. There was another photo that appeared to be somewhat staged, with photographer all set up to get pictures of a few people herded into a small area.”
Patta interrupted him to ask about “real images.” The aired interview merely showed him saying, “Oh, I think that there are certainly people suffering in Gaza.” It didn’t include him blaming the United Nations for failing to deliver aid or his comment that “hunger is terrible, no matter who it happens to.”
“Part of the reason is, is because you’ve had pallets and trucks full of food that the U.N. won’t take in because they say they don’t want military escort from IDF, but they say it’s not safe, and 87 percent of their own food every time they do take it in gets hijacked and looted,” Huckabee said. “That’s their numbers. Those aren’t mine. I didn’t make that up. That’s what they report.”
“So there’s not been a lack of food or even a lack of attempt,” he added. “It’s been an inefficient way of getting it in. It’s been a problem because you have a terror organization who is stealing it, looting it, and then turning around and selling it to the people who are hungry.”
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