CBS News released its full interview with Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt after he torched the network over the “comical 5-minute hit piece” it aired on him this week.
Pratt had called out the outlet for filming for “over an hour” at his burned-out lot Pacific Palisades and broadcasting only snippets of the conversation, includes clips from his time on MTV reality show “The Hills.”
“They can’t beat my ideas, they can’t beat me in the debates, so they gotta try to turn my campaign into a sideshow,” he wrote on X Friday, one in a string of posts attacking the network.
Less than 24 hours later, CBS News released the entire 28-minute interview, noting that it included Pratt discussing “about “his campaign, his vision for the city, and why it’s resonating so strongly with voters on social media.”
“A new era of responsible journalism!” the candidate wrote in response. “Thank you to CBS for posting our full interview so the voters can hear from their next Mayor!”
The network’s earlier, 4-minute clip featured a tidbit in which Pratt he compared himself to former President Barack Obama.
“I mean, look at Obama. He was a community organizer,” he said. “I’ve won two community advocate awards…Nobody thought, ‘Why can Obama become a senator and then the president?’ He had no experience running the whole entire country, which is way bigger than LA.”
The California Post contacted CBS News for comment.
The network has a history of political candidates targeting its news division over edited interviews.
Last year, CBS New corporate owner, Paramount Global, paid $16 million to settle with President Donald Trump over a “deceptively edited” interview it aired with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
The company and CBS had called Trump’s case “completely without merit,” though later settled.
