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 one-year anniversary of the Oct.7 massacre, according to multiple reports.They said the sit-down, conducted last week, did not meet editorial standards for impartiality — though they declined to provide any details, Puck News and Bari Weiss’s Free Press 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 Dokopoulis 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 now invited self-described “mental health expert, DEI...