{"id":157653,"date":"2024-10-08T06:21:57","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T14:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=157653"},"modified":"2024-10-08T06:25:31","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T14:25:31","slug":"nyt-cbs-rebukes-anchor-over-tense-interview-with-ta-nehisi-coates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=157653","title":{"rendered":"NYT: CBS Rebukes Anchor Over Tense Interview With Ta-Nehisi Coates"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\nExecutives said the interview, conducted by the morning show anchor Tony Dokoupil, had fallen short of network editorial standards…<\/p>\n

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\u2019s views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n

Top CBS executives, on a newsroom-wide call, described the interview as falling short of the network\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The episode began last Monday when Mr. Coates visited \u201cCBS Mornings\u201d on a publicity tour for his book \u201cThe Message,\u201d which in one section compares Israel\u2019s 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 \u201cthe elevation of factual complexity over self-evident morality.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the start of the interview, Mr. Dokoupil directly challenged this framing, telling Mr. Coates that \u201cthe content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.\u201d The anchor added, \u201cWhat is it that so particularly offends you about the existence of a Jewish state that is a Jewish safe place?\u201d<\/p>\n

…The interview created a social media uproar. Fans of Mr. Coates accused Mr. Dokoupil of bias, with one writer for Vox calling his questions \u201chostile, combative and rude.\u201d Others took a more sanguine view, including a Washington Post reporter who wrote that the conversation had been \u201cimpassioned but calm\u201d and had brought rigor to the typically breezy realm of morning TV.<\/p>\n

Late last week, a group of CBS News employees approached executives with their concerns about Mr. Dokoupil\u2019s handling of the interview, according to two people with knowledge of the events, who requested anonymity to share internal discussions.<\/p>\n

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 \u201ccontext, tone and intention\u201d of news programming. The conversation focused on Mr. Dokoupil\u2019s tone of voice, phrasing and body language during his interview with Mr. Coates, one of the people said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If I were Dokoupil’s boss, I would not have been happy with his performance. He was unnecessarily combative and inflammatory in his interview of TNC. I’d tell him: Keep your moral pronouncements to yourself when conducting interviews so you can get the most from the interview. <\/p>\n

There’s a useful protocol for conducting effective interviews<\/a> and Dokoupil violated protocol on several occasions. <\/p>\n

Still, Dokoupil’s conduct was par for the course in the MSM, so it’s hard to believe he would have gotten into trouble if the guest wasn’t a POC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times reports: Executives said the interview, conducted by the morning show anchor Tony Dokoupil, had fallen short of network editorial standards… CBS News on Monday rebuked one of its star morning anchors, Tony Dokoupil, over an interview … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42893,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-journalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157653"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157659,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157653\/revisions\/157659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}