CBS Transcript Page Promises Mullin and Barrasso, Delivers Turner, Cramer and Nixon

CBS News posted its full Face the Nation transcript for October 18 with a summary line saying Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso join Margaret Brennan. Read on and the transcript tells a different story. Neither man appears anywhere in the text.

Brennan's own introduction lays out the actual lineup. She says Ohio Republican Congressman Mike Turner and North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer will weigh in, and that she will talk with Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon. The guest list printed on the same page matches: Nixon, identified as a Florida state representative, and Cramer, Republican of North Dakota. CBS's separate transcript pages for the Turner and Cramer interviews confirm those two guests aired that day.

The transcript bears that out line by line. Brennan introduces Turner, who tells her he neither runs with the President nor runs from him and has his own agenda. She then turns to Nixon, who joins from Gainesville and says this is her first introduction to many viewers. Cramer joins from Bismarck and spends his segment on Russia, saying that giving in to a bully invites more demands and that Vladimir Putin is a thug who cannot be negotiated with like a business partner. He mentions Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner by name and says Ukraine should be able to strike launch sites deeper inside Russia.

CBS elections director Anthony Salvanto also appears, walking Brennan through the Senate map. He calls Ohio a toss-up even though, in his words, the President won the state fairly easily, and he calls Alaska, which he describes as a Republican-leaning state, another toss-up. He says a common theme across the races is whether the Republican base consolidates behind its candidates. Brennan's opening frames the week around midterm campaigning entering the homestretch and what she calls President Trump's move to ease pressure on Putin, which she says has angered some Republicans.

One Place News copied the same summary into its repost on October 19. It then tacked on a second line listing Salvanto, Turner, Nixon, Cramer and two CBS correspondents, without fixing the first. The page notes the story was acquired from cbsnews.com. So the error now sits in two places.

A reader who trusts the summary comes away thinking the Homeland Security secretary and the Senate's number two Republican sat for interviews. The transcript shows otherwise. The fix is simple, and the summary still read the same way when One Place News copied it on October 19.