CBS anti-journalism flubs should prompt a wake-up call

CBS News has a fine heritage and some great news talent, but the folks in charge seem determined to destroy its reputation.Start with the ludicrous blowback to CBS Mornings host Tony Dokoupil’s Sept.30 interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, in which Dokoupil pressed Coates on crucial facts he’d left out of his new anti-Israel book, such as the fact that the Jewish state is “surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it.”They were all completely reasonable questions to ask about a polemic of its author, an intellectual who certainly should be able to defend his work.But other network staff were furious at this act of Journalism 101: You’re not supposed to question lefties about their claims, it seems.Surely they weren’t angry just because Coates is black, or anti-Israel? Whatever: The suits pulled Dokoupil into a meeting with CBS News standards and practices team and its “Race and Culture Unit,” and reportedly chewed him out on a staff call, claiming his questioning of Coates didn’t meet CBS’ “editorial standards.” CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon and her lieutenant Adrienne Roark reprimanded him for bringing “bias” to the interview, but failed to explain exactly how.

The re-education effort was also to feature a followup staff meeting moderated by Dr.Donald Grant, whom management called a “mental health expert, DEI strategist and trauma trainer” — but that got squelched after outside critics exposed Grant as wacko whose social-media posts include a racist smear of Sen.

Tim Scott.Meanwhile, Coates on a Trevor Noah podcast suggested that Gayle King (who was also sitting in on the interview, along with Nate Burleson) had told him before the sitdown what she planned to ask.That sounds a lot more like a violation of good news practice than what Dokoupil did, but there’s no sign of any trouble for King.Then came Bill Whitaker’s entirely professional interview of Kamala Harris, where she time and again dodged any substantial answers, prom...