Gov. Pat McCrory wasn't happy with how the CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes" portrayed North Carolina's coal ash controversy on Dec. 7.
In an interview Friday on Asheville's WWNC-AM, McCrory slammed the piece. He said that despite spending "an hour and 15 minutes straight, under the hot lights, sweating" with reporter Lesley Stahl, the report spliced his comments into mere seconds of sound bites.
"I was shocked at the deceptive editing, and I think they couldn't figure out what their story was," McCrory told conservative talk show host Pete Kaliner.
McCrory said CBS glossed over Democrats' role in the Dan River coal ash spill. Legislation passed under a Democratic legislature weakened oversight of coal ash ponds, he said.
"They couldn't fit it in their 11- or 12-minute story," he said.
McCrory said he was interviewed for the story three months ago, and he suspects the network's original plan was to air the segment before the November election.
"They had an agenda – a theme coming in – and I don't think the facts on the ground fit the theme they were looking for," he said.
Also worth noting from the governor's chat with Kaliner: McCrory shared a story about his love for the Beatles' song "Strawberry Fields Forever."
While undergoing anesthesia for a shoulder operation, "the anesthesiologist said when I was put under, I started singing 'Strawberry Fields.' "
