Brendan Carr, stop that CAR! That’s pretty much the message the NAB‘s legal team is sending the FCC with respect to its consideration of a news distortion complaint from a group that has vociferously attacked CBS for offering viewers two different answers to the same question posed to former Vice President Kamala Harris in an interview.

In a 22-page filing made by NAB Chief Legal Officer and Legal and Regulatory Affairs EVP Rick Kaplan and his team, the association that represents broadcasters television requests that the Commission dismiss “the invalid” complaint.

Center for American Rights (CAR), a conservative organization, filed the news distortion complaint against CBS News & Stations WCBS-2 in New York, singling out this owned property for its airing of an interview on “60 Minutes” with the 2024 Democratic Presidential candidate that appeared to show Harris answering a questioning about Israel and its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a manner different from how she answered the same question on “Face The Nation” earlier that day.

The FCC is seeking comment on the complaint, and even went so far as to share raw footage of the interview with Harris, in addition to a transcript of the interview.

Now, the NAB has entered the fray. And it is sticking up for CBS News.

“Given that the complaint does not even allege a prima facie case for news distortion, let alone provide evidence that the editing in question was designed to deliberately mislead viewers about a significant event and done so at the direction of the licensee’s management, it must be dismissed,” the NAB’s legal team argues. “Further, even assuming a successful claim could be made, Congress did not grant the FCC the authority to develop and enforce its news distortion policy and that policy also almost certainly violates the First Amendment.”

Kaplan noted that the NAB does not typically participate in FCC proceedings involving a single station or broadcaster. However, he explained, “[W]e do comment in such proceedings that raise issues implicating the interests of broadcast licensees more generally, as NAB did recently in urging the Commission to reject the frivolous petition to deny the license renewal of WTXF-TV in Philadelphia.”

Some media organizations have sharply criticized CBS News for its editing of the Harris interview, conducted by Bill Whitaker (pictured, top left). On February 5, the New York Post told its readers of how the former Vice President “gave a meandering 179-word answer on Israel that ’60 Minutes’ cut to just 20 words,” a move that gave her “word salad” answers look more coherent.

President Trump has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS for the incident.

Meanwhile, Paramount’s $8 billion merger with Skydance remains in need of regulatory approval.