It needs to be stated right off the bat that CBS bungled last fall’s “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. Having said that, there is no rationale for CBS to continue its cloddish handling of the matter by abandoning fundamental principles of journalistic independence.

A key issue in the minds of many voters was whether presidential contender Harris, then Joe Biden’s vice president, could speak coherently and answer tough questions in an interview setting. Up until the extended interview with CBS’s Bill Whitaker on “60 Minutes” in October, Harris had largely ducked media interrogation, sticking instead to canned stump speeches and soft gab-fests with the likes of Oprah Winfrey. CBS owed it to the electorate to broadcast the Whitaker-Harris interview in its entirety.

The very second CBS decided to edit Harris’s rambling rhetoric, it opened itself up to criticism. CBS tried to defend itself, explaining that editing the Harris interview was just standard practice for clarity and succinctness. That justification makes sense in the normal course of broadcast editing, but not so much when the presidency is on the line. CBS could well have adjusted the timing of its Sunday night........

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