CBS News strongly defended CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King on Thursday for her role in the now-infamous Sept. 30 interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates, saying her tipping off the author to certain lines of inquiry was part of doing her job.
King was largely silent during the tense exchange, which saw co-host Tony Dokoupil grill Coates on the latter’s passages in his latest book The Message regarding Palestine. She tried to interject during the six-minute segment and move the topic along, and only got to ask one full question at the very end.
Coates addressed the kerfuffle on What Now? with Trevor Noah on Thursday, saying he was frustrated King never got to speak during the segment.
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“Gayle King is a great journalist and a great interviewer,” Coates said. “Gayle came behind the stage before we went, and she had gone through the book. And I’m not saying she agreed with the book. She was like, ‘I want to ask you about this,’ ‘I want to ask you about that.’”
Coates did not elaborate on what King planned to ask him. Puck News reported on Wednesday that King planned to ask Coates about Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Coates’ belief that Israel used the Holocaust as a moral badge, and the decision to publish the book just before the one-year anniversary of the attack. Neither Coates nor the Puck report suggested King shared those specific questions with him.
“Gayle King is one of the most respected journalists in America. She is known for her thorough preparation and note taking,” a CBS Mornings spokesperson said in a statement. “She reads the books, consumes the content that will be discussed and extensively prepares for each interview on CBS Mornings. Engaging in pre-segment conversations with guests is a standard practice for any experienced host. Discussing a guest’s work ahead of time is a common approach to establish rapport.”
Gayle King attends Glamour Women of the Year 2024 at Times Square.
Dimitrios Kambouris/GettyThe network has been consumed by infighting since Monday, when CBS News President Wendy McMahon and head of newsgathering Adrienne Roark said Dokoupil had violated the network’s editorial standards when he uncharacteristically, for a morning program, pressed Coates on his stances regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
After another meeting on Tuesday reportedly went off the rails, McMahon and Roark were then chastised publicly, though not by name, by Paramount Global chairwoman Shari Redstone on Wednesday. Redstone said “they made a mistake here” and that the episode “was not handled correctly.” Redstone also reportedly called Dokoupil to express she stood by him, according to Puck, and she expressed her misgivings to Paramount Global co-CEO George Cheeks.
Cheeks tried to have it both ways on Wednesday, defending McMahon while acknowledging the standards needed to be appropriately tested.
“[McMahon] and her leadership team are passionate advocates and stewards for CBS News standards; that won’t change,” Cheeks wrote. “Reasonable minds in a newsroom will appropriately pressure test and debate internally to ensure balanced and objective coverage externally.”
