Shari Redstone Says CBS News ‘Made a Mistake’ by Rebuking Tony Dokoupil Over Ta-Nehisi Coates Interview
Memo to CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil: Looks like the boss has your back (at least for now).
Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global, in some of her last days in that role, reprimanded executives at CBS News for telling staffers earlier this week that a sharp exchange on “CBS Mornings” between Dokoupil and author Ta-Nehisi Coates about his new book “The Message” had not met the news division’s editorial standards. The segment raised eyebrows both among viewers and internally, because it progressed into a tense back-and-forth as Dokoupil grilled Coates on whether his writing expressed antipathy toward Israel.
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“I think we made a mistake,” said Redstone, while speaking at an event in New York City that was part of Advertising Week, an industry conference. “I think we made a bad mistake this week.”
At issue, according to people familiar with the matter, was whether Dokoupil’s tone during the exchange revealed signs of the journalist’s bias. At the interview’s start, Dokoupil noted that the book “would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.”
“Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it?” he asked, adding; “Why not detail anything of the First and the Second Intifada, the cafe bombings, the bus bombings, the little kids blown to bits? And is it because you just don’t believe that Israel in any condition has a right to exist?”
Adrienne Roark, recently named president of editorial and newsgathering for CBS News, told staffers earlier this week that “there are times we have not met our editorial standards.” She told employees that the situation “has been addressed, and it will continue to be in the future.”
But Redstone said the interview was appropriate, because it allowed for a civil discussion of difficult issues — something she feels more Americans need to experience.
The media “can all do a better job” at providing platform for civil discourse, Redstone said.
The exchange between Doukopil and Coates showed “showed there was accountability, showed there was a system of checks and balances,” she said.
Dokoupil has increased his profile at CBS News, first gaining a foothold at the morning show, then getting assignments to cover important breaking-news moments on the ground. He recently began co-hosting a third hour of “CBS Mornings” that is streamed live and aired on some of CBS’ biggest stations. “CBS Mornings” has always positioned itself as an alternative to breezier presentations from NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” but an argument could also be made that the exchange between Dokoupil and Coates had all the trappings of something that might appear on cable news, not a venerable CBS News broadcast.
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