CBS News won’t discipline host after controversial Ta-Nehisi Coates interview about Israel
“CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil will not face any further repercussions over his controversial interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates about Israel, according to an executive familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The news division was roiled Monday after management admonished Dokoupil on an editorial call over his exchange with Coates on the Sept. 30 edition of the program.
Dokoupil took criticism for how he questioned Coates about his new book, “The Message,” which examines the Israel-Gaza conflict. CBS News leadership said on the call that the interview did not meet the company’s editorial standards.
To criticize a journalist on a widely heard staff call is an unusual move. A recording of the call was obtained and posted by the Free Press, the digital news outlet launched by Bari Weiss.
Staffers were still buzzing about the move Tuesday, some of whom were critical of management’s rebuke.
But Dokoupil was on the Tuesday edition of “CBS Mornings” and no mention was made of the controversy. Co-host Gayle King introduced a report on the latest developments in the Middle East.
Dokoupil recently signed a new multiyear deal with the network.
He was recently named co-host of a newly launched third hour of the program, which is airing in several markets, including Los Angeles. The program, called “CBS Mornings Plus,” is a pet project of Wendy McMahon, chief executive of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures.
The Atlanta-based correspondent will be a regular on the NBC News program seen across multiple TV platforms.
Internal discussions of how to report on the Israel-Gaza conflict have been frequent within news organizations since Hamas attacked Israel a year ago, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Its figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but they indicate that at least half the dead are women and children.
But the fallout from Dokoupil’s interview was more charged than usual.
Dokoupil, who is Jewish and has two children living with his ex-wife in Israel, was friendly in tone during the interview with Coates. But he questioned the approach the author took in his book, which compares Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank to the Jim Crow era of segregation in the U.S.
Dokoupil observed that the book did not explore the threats Israel faces from neighboring adversaries in the Middle East.
“Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it?” Dokoupil asked. “Why leave out that Israel deals with terror groups that want to eliminate it?”
Familiar faces will be leaving the news division in the latest round of layoffs at Paramount Global, which is looking for $500 million in annual cost savings.
“There is no shortage of that perspective in American media,” Coates replied. “I am most concerned, always, with those who don’t have a voice.”
Dokoupil also said that if Coates’ name and publisher were not attached to the book, some of the content “would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.”
At the Monday editorial call, Adrienne Roark, the head of news-gathering at the network, said employees “reached out to express concerns over recent reporting,” including Dokoupil’s interview.
Those employees included executives from the division’s standards and practices and race and culture unit, according to people familiar with the discussions, who added that Dokoupil apologized to them.
“We have to check our biases and opinions at the door,” Roark said during the call. “We are here to report the news without fear or favor.”
Management received pushback during the editorial call on Monday. Jan Crawford, a veteran journalist who covers the Supreme Court for CBS News, defended Dokoupil, saying she did not see how the host violated any company policy.
“Tony prevented a one-sided account from being broadcast on our network that was completely devoid of history or facts,” Crawford said, according to the recording released by the Free Press. “As someone who does a lot of interviews, I’m not sure now how to proceed in challenging viewpoints that are obviously one-sided and devoid of fact and history.”
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