CBS News on Monday rebuked one of its star morning anchors, Tony Dokoupil, over an interview that he conducted last week with the author Ta-Nehisi Coates, in which Mr. Dokoupil challenged Mr. Coates’s views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Top CBS executives, on a newsroom-wide call, described the interview as falling short of the network’s editorial standards. The executives said their critique had been prompted by internal staff concerns, although at least one veteran CBS journalist said later on the call that she was puzzled over what exactly Mr. Dokoupil had done wrong.
The episode began last Monday when Mr. Coates visited “CBS Mornings” on a publicity tour for his book “The Message,” which in one section compares Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Jim Crow laws of the American South. In describing what he witnessed on a 10-day trip to the region last year, Mr. Coates criticized other journalists for “the elevation of factual complexity over self-evident morality.”
From the start of the interview, Mr. Dokoupil directly challenged this framing, telling Mr. Coates that “the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.” The anchor added, “What is it that so particularly offends you about the existence of a Jewish state that is a Jewish safe place?”
“There’s nothing that offends me about a Jewish state; I am offended by the idea of states built on ethnocracy, no matter where they are,” Mr. Coates replied. The men parried for several minutes in a tense but civil manner, with Mr. Coates at one point saying: “Either apartheid is right or wrong. It’s really, really simple.”
Their exchange concluded on a light note, with Mr. Dokoupil, who is Jewish, telling Mr. Coates that he was “still invited to High Holidays” to a chorus of laughter on the set.
The interview created a social media uproar. Fans of Mr. Coates accused Mr. Dokoupil of bias, with one writer for Vox calling his questions “hostile, combative and rude.” Others took a more sanguine view, including a Washington Post reporter who wrote that the conversation had been “impassioned but calm” and had brought rigor to the typically breezy realm of morning TV.
Late last week, a group of CBS News employees approached executives with their concerns about Mr. Dokoupil’s handling of the interview, according to two people with knowledge of the events, who requested anonymity to share internal discussions.
Mr. Dokoupil met for an hour with members of the CBS News standards and practices team and the in-house Race and Culture Unit, which advises on “context, tone and intention” of news programming. The conversation focused on Mr. Dokoupil’s tone of voice, phrasing and body language during his interview with Mr. Coates, one of the people said.
Mr. Dokoupil, who joined CBS News in 2016 and became a morning anchor in 2019, is a rising star at the network who recently took on an extra hour on “CBS Mornings.” He is continuing to appear on the air.
Mr. Coates did not respond to requests for comment on Monday. CBS News declined to comment.
Executives who discussed the interview on Monday’s call had asked staff members to keep their remarks confidential. But their comments were reported within hours by Puck, and The Free Press, the news and opinion site run by Bari Weiss, published audio recordings of the meeting.
“After a review of our coverage, including the interview, it’s clear that there are times we have not met our editorial standards,” said Adrienne Roark, the network’s president of editorial and news gathering, according to a recording. “This has been addressed, and it will continue to be in the future.”
Ms. Roark, who started her job in August after her predecessor abruptly stepped down, added, “I want to be clear: We will still ask tough questions. We will still hold people accountable. That’s part of our job, too. But we will do so objectively, and that means very plainly checking our biases and opinions at the door, and that applies to every single one of us.”
Jan Crawford, the chief legal correspondent at CBS News, spoke up later on the call to say she did not understand why Mr. Dokoupil’s questions had not met editorial standards.
“When someone comes on our air with a one-sided account of a very complex situation, as Coates himself acknowledges that he has, it’s my understanding that as journalists we are obligated to challenge that worldview so that our viewers can have that access to the truth or a fuller account,” Ms. Crawford said. “To me, that is what Tony did.”
Ms. Crawford said she was confused as to how CBS correspondents should proceed. “What is the objective standard for the rest of us when we are doing our own interviews?” she asked.
“I appreciate you bringing this up,” Ms. Roark replied. “I know this is a lot for everybody to process.” She said she would follow up with Ms. Crawford after the call.
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