Justin Baragona\Zeteo
Photos: TV Screenshot\YouTube Screenshots
After he sparked a full-blown crisis at CBS News with his explosive interview of acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates, anchor Tony Dokoupil has spent the past few days reaching out to network colleagues on what some are describing as an “apology tour,” three sources familiar with the matter told me.
Specifically, CBS insiders said, Dokoupil has been speaking to people across the foreign news division who have taken part in the network’s coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and growing tensions in the Middle East. While the ‘CBS Mornings’ host’s outreach may not represent a full mea culpa on Dokoupil’s part, sources noted, he has been making a concerted effort to engage with his colleagues on this issue.
“It seems to be dawning on him that maybe he has taken this too far. That it has caused a lot of damage and hurt a lot of people and that he maybe has even hurt his own career, because who’s going to see him as an objective observer of anything ever again,” one CBS employee said.
Noting that the anchor has gotten a list of people involved in coverage of the region, another insider said that some of the folks Dokoupil has reached out to “have not been biting their tongues” and are “confronting him directly” about his biased editorializing. Two sources also pointed out that during one of these conversations, Dokoupil was directly told that he basically sounds “like an IDF spokesperson” during his segments. An additional staffer said that Dokoupil had called to apologize to some foreign correspondents for potentially putting them in danger with his pro-Israel rhetoric while they were reporting from the front lines of the war.
Of course, this has all come in the aftermath of Dokoupil’s aggressive Sept. 30 sitdown with Coates that sparked controversy after the CBS host all but accused The Message author of being an antisemitic terrorist. CBS News chief Wendy McMahon and head of news gathering Adrienne Roark eventually addressed the matter a week later, finding that Dokoupil had violated the network’s editorial standards with the way he conducted the interview. (Dokoupil himself admitted to defying standards and practices while defending his tone and “tough” questions.)
CBS News declined to comment.
Execs In Trouble?
Meanwhile, McMahon – who has been in the job for barely a year – has suddenly found herself under fire over her handling of this whole affair, especially amid the groundswell of criticism from both the right-wing press and legacy media folks who are largely supportive of Israel. (The recent kerfuffle over ‘60 Minutes’ editing part of an answer from Kamala Harris hasn’t helped matters.)
Shari Redstone, head of CBS parent Paramount Global, publicly sided with Dokoupil last week, saying he did a “great job” by “asking tough questions” and didn’t violate editorial standards. She claimed CBS News management “made a mistake” in handling matters. She also privately called Dokoupil to praise him and had dinner with him this week, according to The Wall Street Journal. But following Redstone’s complaints, Paramount Global co-CEO and CBS President George Cheeks made a point of backing the news leadership team. Skydance did not respond to a request for comment.
Redstone’s fiery defense of Dokoupil and Paramount’s pending sale to Skydance, which is run by movie producer David Ellison, has led to speculation that McMahon and other CBS News executives could be in trouble. A CBS insider, meanwhile, noted that many within the CBS newsroom are perturbed by recent reports that Redstone – a fervent philanthropic supporter of pro-Israeli causes – has pushed for a more conservative and pro-Israeli bent in the network’s news coverage.
The New York Post, for instance, reported that Ellison’s dad Larry, a pal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is extremely unhappy. “They’re thinking about blowing the place up,” according to one of the Post’s sources. Our sources, however, noted that Redstone is selling her stake while Cheeks will probably stay as head of CBS, adding that it’s highly likely Cheeks ran his statement of support for McMahon and Roark by his soon-to-be Skydance bosses before releasing it.
According to Puck, McMahon is set to meet with her soon-to-be boss, David Ellison (along with RedBird’s Jeff Shell), later this week. Two network sources told me that not only is there broad support for McMahon throughout CBS News, but within Paramount and Skydance as well.
Though McMahon has been receiving a lot of external flack over the way this has all gone down, multiple sources told me that she continues to draw quite a bit of support from the rank-and-file in the CBS newsroom. While Dokoupil has a small but vocal group of defenders and acolytes at the network, notably justice correspondent Jan Crawford, most staffers back McMahon and Roark for addressing the situation.
Early Complaints Ignored
One question that has gone unanswered is why McMahon didn’t address this situation with Dokoupil earlier. …
