On the same day as NBC’s Meet the Press and Chuck Todd took AG Barr out of context, CBS’s 60 Minutes did the very same thing to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, claiming Pompeo was pushing a debunked theory that the Wuhan virus was manmade despite the administration claiming otherwise.
But first, before we delve into the 60 minutes piece, I want you to rewatch a snippet from Pompeo’s interview from last Sunday where he was asked about the virus being manmade (It’s cued up to 5:51):
Clearly when Pompeo first answered the question about the virus being manmade, he misspoke. When Raddatz read to Pompeo the ODNI’s statement that the virus was not manmade, Pompeo said he agreed with their statement and had no reason to believe it was inaccurate. Raddatz, understanding that Pompeo probably misspoke the first time, sought to clarify one more time that Pompeo didn’t believe it was manmade. He answered the same way, saying he had no reason to believe they had it wrong.
Now, watch how 60 minutes takes Pompeo woefully out of context (it’s cued up to 8:21):
Scott Pelley, the narrator of the segment, uses the portion of the interview where Pompeo misspoke to claim he was pushing a debunked theory of the virus being manmade. Then, when Pompeo said he agreed with the ODNI statement that the virus was no manmade, Pelley claimed Pompeo was trying to have it both ways.
The segment was so egregious that the spox for the State Department slammed 60 minutes for their false portrayal of Pompeo’s comments:
.@CBSNews intentionally misled its viewers with a report Sunday evening that failed to accurately portray the clear intent of Secretary Pompeo's remarks to Martha Raddatz on ABC News regarding the origin of the virus in Wuhan, China.
— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) May 11, 2020
They failed, too, to air his comments to the press from last Wednesday that provided even more clarity on the issue.
— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) May 11, 2020
This reporting — intending to deceive — seeks to obfuscate the Secretary’s core point: the Chinese Communist Party continues to refuse calls for transparency, thereby compounding its cover-up, and further risking American lives.
— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) May 11, 2020
There was no real need for his comments from last Wednesday. To any fair minded person watching the prior interview, it was clear that Pompeo misspoke and didn’t realize it and that, upon clarification, he did agree with the ODNI assessment that it wasn’t manmade. It was intentional and egregious and Scott Pelley should be fired.