• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Worried that your favorite TV journalists are having a tough time with the Trump Administration when it comes to their interviews?

Perhaps you might want to worry a bit more.

It seems Paramount Skydance wants to make things a bit more complicated when it comes to “editing” -- a key process that journalists/reporters have been doing since the beginning of journalism.

This came during a recent CBS News “Face the Nation” with the Trump Administration U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. She made a number of false or unproven statements about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man who was deported although he had protected legal status in the United States, according to analysts.

The Trump Administration and other media critics complained about the editing of that interview, and in response Paramount Skydance now says it would stop editing those “Face The Nation” video interviews.

A reported statement from CBS News last week said: “In response to audience feedback over the past week, we have implemented a new policy for greater transparency in our interviews. ‘Face The Nation’ will now only broadcast live or live-to-tape interviews (subject to national security or legal restrictions).”

It adds that “this extra measure means the television audience will see the full, unedited interview on CBS and we will continue our practice of posting full transcripts and the unedited video online.”

Journalistic editing processes can be subject to a broad range of things, including when facts, figures, statements are not part of the central part of the story. In addition, content should be removed when it needs to be checked for accuracy.

But now it seems that content -- whether true or false -- will all appear, under the guise of transparency.

That will make it harder for viewers to get a complete picture of what is going on. Proponents of the CBS News decision, of course, say a separate news story/item -- after the fact -- could dispute or contradict those facts from separate sources.

But all this makes it harder for the interviewer -- and to tell a story to viewers. Those viewers are already bombarded by rising unconfirmed/false content on social media. All this means a more difficult effort to get a clearer picture of the truth.

It also can give government officials and others the ability to grandstand and divulge promotional things, further muddying independent journalists' efforts. Accountability is then challenged.

For sure, Noem can then go on other network news shows and those interviewers -- now seeing CBS News' unedited video interview -- will be prepared with tougher questions.

At the same time, Noem might also just repeat the same messaging, as she did on CBS.

This doesn’t look like it will stop. It was Paramount that paid the Trump Administration $16 million to settle a lawsuit of an interview with then Democrat Presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Freedom of the press allows all types of quality journalism --  the good, the bad, weak, and now even the more cloudy.

More work to be done by news consumers.

What’s next?