Last week, I covered the initial fallout at CBS News over the interview conducted by "CBS Mornings" host Tony Dokoupil with incendiary author Ta-Nehisi Coates on his new book, "The Message."
Coates complained in an interview with New York Magazine "that the idea the Israel-Palestinian conflict was 'complicated' was actually a bunch of 'horses**t.'" He said that argument was reminiscent of arguments made by slave traders. “It’s complicated,” he said, “when you want to take something from somebody," quoting Coates.
Coates claims that Israel is an "apartheid nation" in his book. He never mentions Hamas or Hezbollah, or the intifada, or the fact that Israel is surrounded by nations that don't believe it has a right to exist.
Dokoupil, who converted to Judaism and whose ex-wife and children live in Israel, asked Coates some penetrating questions; “Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it?” he asked.“Why not detail anything of the first and second intifada... the cafe bombings, the bus bombings, the little kids blown to bits?”
CBS News staffers hit the roof. They complained to CBS News' CEO Wendy McMahon that the interview wasn't "impartial." Adrienne Roark, the president of content development for the news division, went off on Dokoupil, telling him to check his" biases and opinions at the door."
The Free Press has an extended excerpt of the interview here in which it's clear to anyone who knows anything about journalism that Dokoupil's questions were respectful and tolerant. The host's sin was that he committed the unpardonable act of practicing journalism in a newsroom.
The issue kept festering so much that on Tuesday morning, another staff meeting was held. This time, the deck was stacked against Dokoupil. The "Race and Culture Unit" at CBS News — a woke hit squad that the network's leadership uses to silence dissent in the ranks — ran the meeting. They “focused on Mr. Dokoupil’s tone of voice, phrasing and body language during his interview," according to the New York Times. I note the absence of anything relating to journalism in that critique, don't you?
There was an open debate in the meeting about whether it is “fair to talk about whether Israel should exist at all.” There are some people at CBS who think that “Israel’s existence as a state should be part of fair conversation,” said one CBS source. Can you imagine journalists having that conversation about any other country?
No wonder Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of CBS’s parent company Paramount Global—at least until its merger with Skydance goes through some time next year—is not happy. A source close to Redstone told The Free Press that Redstone thought that “Tony gave a great interview and modeled what civil discourse should look like. And she disagreed with the action the company took. She’s working with the CEOs to address this issue.”
The issue was how to conduct an interview with a radical author who wouldn't tell both sides of the story. Coates admits that he was biased in his point of view about the Palestinians. One real journalist, the network's legal correspondent, Jan Crawford, was genuinely perplexed.
“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,” Crawford said. “To me, that is what Tony did.”
“What is the objective standard for the rest of us when we are doing our own interviews?” she asked Roark. She told Crawford she'd get back to her on that.
“I appreciate you bringing this up,” Roark replied. “I know this is a lot for everybody to process.”
How powerful is the "Race and Culture Unit" at the network?
According to the company’s website, this unit works “in concert with the CBS News Standards and Ethics department to ensure all stories have the proper context, tone, and intention.” It was formed in the summer of 2020. “We must always be aware of how race and culture impacts our journalism—and, in terms of the future of CBS News, this unit will be as important as Standards and Practices,” a CBS executive said at the time.
“These broad and subjective criteria have made them a very powerful voice and many employees believe this has allowed greater bias to creep into editorial decisions at the network,” said one CBS News source to The Free Press. “You see bias when it’s something you don’t agree with.”
We've seen this definition of "bias" time and time again in recent years as staffers throw tantrums when something airs or is printed that they disagree with. It wouldn't be so scary except these are the news managers of tomorrow.
Will they grow up or remain pouty little kids for the rest of their lives?
