Donald Trump’s question-and-answer session at a Bronx barbershop was edited by Fox News to resemble a “campaign ad,” CNN suggested Thursday – which would hardly break from precedent, except that the former president has openly complained about edits to Kamala Harris’ recent interview on “60 Minutes.”
As part of Lawrence Jones’ “Fox & Friends” barbershop interview series that aired this week, Trump took questions from customers and workers in New York. The long-running Fox segment has always been edited to fit long-form conversations into its own time constraints – a necessary and common practice for any TV network.
“But the version of the visit shown on television was, to borrow a hairstyle metaphor, a crop cut,” “Reliable Sources” editor Brian Stelter wrote Thursday – edits that “certainly make [Trump] look better.”
Fox News responded with a virtual shoulder-shrug: “Every one of ‘Fox & Friends’ barbershop segments are pre-taped and edited,” a network spokesperson said in a statement to TheWrap. “The Bronx edition ran for nearly an hour and was cut for time and clarity.”
That might be standard operating procedure, but Stelter found it notable in this case because of Trump’s attacks on the interview Harris gave with “60 Minutes” earlier this month. Trump took issue with an edit of Harris’ comment about the relationship between Israel and the United States, saying CBS manipulated the interview, cutting to a later answer to the question to “make her look better” and demanding an unedited transcript – which was denied.
CNN says it compared a “more complete video of the barbershop visit” posted on Instagram to the version shown Monday on “Fox & Friends.”
“Fox’s edits omitted numerous Trump tangents and exaggerations – a striking decision given Trump’s recent attacks on CBS,” Stelter wrote. Those cuts included comments about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, crime in Aurora, Colorado, and an insult pointed at the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by News Corp.
Stelter highlighted “one of the most telling parts of the dialogue” when an audience member asked about finding a way to eliminate federal taxes, which Trump was shown to immediately answer: “There is a way.” The response was actually from several minutes later, with many topics wedged in between.
“On Fox, it was stitched together as one seamless back-and-forth,” Stelter wrote.
