‘CBS Mornings’ host Tony Dokoupil ripped by bosses over tense Israel interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates — sparking staff backlash: reports
CBS brass reportedly called out morning show anchor Tony Dokoupil on Monday for his tough grilling of author Ta-Nehisi Coates about the controversial author’s pro-Palestinian framing of Hamas’ war with Israel — sparking backlash among staffers over the network’s “commitment to truth.”
CBS News boss Wendy McMahon and Adrienne Roark, the president of content development for the news division, claimed the “CBS Mornings” host brought his own bias to the interview with Coates during a meeting with workers on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, according to multiple reports.
They said the sit-down, conducted last week by Dokoupil and co-anchors Gayle King and Nate Burleson, did not meet editorial standards for impartiality — though they declined to provide any details, Puck News and reported.
“We will still hold people accountable. But we will do so objectively, which means checking our biases and opinions at the door,” Roark said, according to the outlets. “We are here to report news without fear or favor.”
The strong admonishment did not sit well with several of Dokopoul’s backers, including CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford.
“I don’t even understand how Tony’s interview failed to meet our editorial standards … I thought our commitment was to truth,” Crawford was quoted as saying by Puck.
“When someone comes on our air with a one-sided account of very complex situation — which Coates himself acknowledges that he has — it’s my understanding that as a journalist, we are obligated to challenge that worldview, so that our viewers can have access to the truth and can have a more balanced account.”
Another CBS source told The Post: “This is more a failure of CBS News not reading books and evaluating if they should be promoting them.
“I think Tony did what every good journalist is supposed to do — make sure that both sides are represented in a discussion.”
The Tiffany Network has invited self-described “mental health expert, DEI strategist and trauma trainer” Dr. Donald Grant to ♌moderate a conversation during an all-staff meeting Tuesday, Puck reported.
CBS News and Dokoupil declined to comment.
Coateಌs, a journalist and author who has written several books about race, appeared on the show to which includes a firsthand account of his travels to Israel and the Palestinian West Bank.
In the book, Coates condemned what he called Israeli “apartheid” in its administration of the territories captured in the Six-Day War of 1967.
Dokoupil, to Judaism , took issue with Coates, saying that the book “would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist” due to its characterization of Israel.
Dokoupil asked Coates why he didn’t include more pro-Israel voices or note in his work that “little kids [were] blown to bits” in Palestinian terrorist attacks.
“Is it because you just don’t bel♕ieve that Israel, in any condition, has a ri꧒ght to exist?” Dokoupil asked.
Coates replied that the Israeli narrative was well-represented in the American mainstream press and tꦆhat few Palestinian voices had a chance to be heard.
“I wrote a 260-page book,” Coates said.
“It is not a treatꩲiseꦫ on the entirety of the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis.”
Dokoupil pressed Coates, saying that his book “delegitimizes the pillars of Israel” in an effort to “topple the whole building of it.”
“What is it that particularly offends you about the existence of a Jewish state, that is a Jewish safe𝄹 place, and not any of the other states out there?” Dokoupil said.
“There’s nothing that offends me about a Jewis🔴h st𒆙ate,” Coates responded.
“I am offended by the idea of states built on ethnocracy, no m🍌atter where they are.”
Crawford praised Dokoupil for “challeng[ing] Coates’ one-sided worldview” and then giving the author a chance to respond.
“It was civil … I don’t see how we can say that it failed to meet our editorial standards,” Crawford is reported to have said.
She added that Dokoupil “prevented a one-sided account from being broadcast on our network about a deeply complex situation that completely was devoid of history or fact.
“As journalists, that’s what we have an obligation to do.”
The other CBS source said: “If they decide that one-sided books are what they want to put on, maybe they should introduce the segments in a more comprehensive way.”
Weiss’ publication accused CBS News’ of having a “double standard” on sensitive issues, noting the network did not admonish Gayle King for her tearful comments following the death of George Floyd in May 2020.
