Spencer Pratt Addresses CBS News Interview Controversy
CBS News has released the complete interview with Spencer Pratt, a candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, following a significant backlash after a brief segment aired this week. Pratt described the aired piece as “a comical 5-minute hit piece.”
In his original interview, Pratt spoke for “over an hour” in the area affected by the recent fires in Pacific Palisades, yet only certain clips, including moments from his time on MTV’s “The Hills,” were included in the first airing.
Frustrated by the negative spin, he expressed on X, “They can’t beat my ideas, they can’t beat me in debates, so they have to try to turn my campaign into a sideshow.” This was part of a series of criticisms directed at the network.
Within a day, CBS News published the entire 28-minute interview. According to the network, this version provided Pratt with a platform to discuss “his campaign, his vision for the city, and why it resonates strongly with social media users.”
Reacting to the full interview’s release, Pratt declared, “A new era of responsible journalism! Thank you CBS for publishing our full interview so voters can hear from their next mayor!”
During the earlier edited segment, Pratt made a notable comparison between himself and former President Barack Obama, highlighting his own achievements by stating, “I won two Community Advocate Awards… Nobody thought, ‘How could Obama become a senator and then become president?'” He pointed out that Obama had no prior experience governing a country much larger than Los Angeles.
The California Post has reached out to CBS News for further comments on the situation.
This is not the first time CBS has faced criticism over edited interviews with political figures. Last year, the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, settled a $16 million lawsuit with President Donald Trump over accusations of a “deceptively edited” interview featuring former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Although CBS maintained that Trump’s lawsuit was “completely without merit,” they eventually opted for a settlement.
