When is an interview too tough? CBS News grappling with question after Dokoupil interview
NEW YORK– Interviews on television’s morning shows often don’t go beyond dinner recipes or celebrity jokes. But a week after it took place, CBS News host Tony Dokoupil’s sharp interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates about Israel continues to be the subject of heated conversation on the network and beyond.
CBS management took the unusual step of berating Dokoupil to his colleagues for not meeting network standards during a private meeting on Monday that quickly became public, and CBS Mornings employees continued to talk about it on Tuesday.
The seven-minute interview on September 30 focused on Coates’ new book of essays, and Dokoupil immediately focused on a section on Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank in a conversation that the Washington Post last week called “unusually tense and substantive.” ”
For all of Coates’ credit as a writer, Dokoupil said the essay “wouldn’t be out of place in an extremist’s backpack.” He wondered why Coates’ writings contained no references to Israel being surrounded by enemies who want to eliminate the country.
“Is it because you simply do not believe that Israel has a right to exist under any circumstances?” he asked.
Coates said there is no shortage of places where Israel’s point of view is represented, and that he wanted to speak for those who have no voice.
“I wrote a 260-page book,” Coates said. “It is not a treatise on the entire conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians.”
Dokoupil later asked Coates what offended him about the existence of a Jewish state, and he said that the Palestinians “in your story only exist as victims of Israel,” as if peace had never been offered to them at any point.
Coates said he was offended when anyone — including the Palestinians who spoke to him about his book — is treated as second-class citizens in the country where they live, compared to the Jim Crow era in the United States, where his ancestors grew up.
In the staff call on Monday, CBS News chief Wendy McMahon and her deputy, Adrienne Roark, said several journalists from the company had contacted them about the interview.
“There are times when we have not met our editorial standards,” Roark said, citing Dokoupil’s interviews and other comments from CBS staff that she did not recognize.
CBS News is built on a “foundation of neutrality,” she said. “Our job is to serve our audiences without bias or perceived prejudice.”
She said the issues had been addressed, but neither she nor CBS explained what this meant.
McMahon told employees during the call that she expected its contents to remain confidential. But a tape of it was posted to the news site The Free Press within hours.
Dokoupil did not immediately return messages seeking comment. A spokesperson for Coates did not return a message.
Dokoupil is one of three hosts of CBS Mornings, along with Gayle King and Nate Burleson. All three participated in the interview with Coates, but with the exception of an opening question from Burleson and a brief question at the end from King, it was dominated by Dokoupil.
Dokoupil is married to NBC News journalist Katy Tur. He has two children from a previous marriage, both of whom live with their mother in Israel. In the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, Dokoupil said on the show: “As a father, I think people can understand if someone, anyone, is firing rockets in the direction of your children, regardless of whether they or you are hit or not, you will feel some things.”
The reprimand by CBS management came Monday on the first anniversary of the Hamas attack.
Management immediately faced resistance to the call from CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford, who said it is a journalist’s duty to ask tough questions when someone comes on air with a one-sided view.
“I don’t see how we can say this didn’t meet our editorial standards,” Crawford said. She said she worried this would make her think twice about conducting interviews.
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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him up http://x.com/dbauder.