CBS News executives were facing an internal backlash Monday after determining that a tense interview between one of its morning hosts and a prominent author did not meet its editorial standards. The interview between “CBS Mornings” co-anchor Tony Dokoupil and author Ta-Nehisi Coates last Tuesday was about Coates’ new book, The Message. Dokoupil asked if Coates believed Israel had no right to exist. “I have to say, when I read the book, I imagine if I took your name out of it... the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist,” Dokoupil said. Coates said he was only writing from the perspectives he had in visiting the region. “I am most concerned, always, with those who don’t have a voice,” he said.
Management concluded that “the problem was Tony’s tone” in the interview, one source told CNN. Network chiefs Wendy McMahon and Adrienne Roark told staff that, after a review by the network’s standards and practices unit, they felt the interview did not meet the bar, according to CNN. However, some CBS journalists, including Jan Crawford, the network’s chief legal correspondent, took issue with the result. “Tony prevented a one-sided account from being broadcast on our network,” she said, according to CNN. According to Puck News, the network plans to bring in mental health expert Dr. Donald Grant to moderate a conversation on the issue during an all-staff meeting on Tuesday.
Read it at CNN
