Ta-Nehisi Coates is a revered figure on the left. He flagellates white people and Western Culture with the intellectual sadomasochistic technique that arouses the woke left these days. His "antiracist" crusade has brought him influence, acclaim, and immunity from all questioning by anybody who has the wrong quotient of melanin in their skin.
Coates is currently out hawking his deeply deceptive book The Message and appeared on CBS, as famous authors do. Many of the people who watched the interview saw a spirited discussion about a vital issue--Israel and "Palestine"--but others saw a white man challenging a black man unfairly.
This is a great interview and exchange. CBS’s @tonydokoupil provides context and challenges Ta-Nehesi Coates exactly where he should have. Coates responds from a principled place. Viewers are given space to determine which position they want to land on. Wish conversation had been… https://t.co/YGB8zJ4754
— Robert A George (@RobGeorge) October 8, 2024
Coates makes no bones about his disgust for Israel, and in his book, he gives a one-sided argument that Israel is oppressing Palestinians. He never once mentions terrorism, Hamas, or anything other than Israel's measures to defend itself--as is his right. It is his book, and he is telling the story as he wants to.
A lot of folks arguing that Dokoupil's questions were inappropriate because the morning show is only supposed to be for puffy, supportive interviews. Well, here's the same show interviewing a guy whose daughter had been kidnapped on October 7th. Seems .... not so puffy or… https://t.co/oKvQSoabUB
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) October 9, 2024
Tony Dokoupil, in his interview, challenges him on this. In essence, he asked, "Why are you leaving the other side out?" It was not an accusation but a question. He didn't debate--he probed as journalists are supposed to. CBS' Chief Legal Correspondent agreed:
Ultimately, the executives also received pushback from CBS chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford, who said, “It sounds like we are calling out one of our anchors in a somewhat public setting on this call for failing to meet editorial standards for, I’m not even sure what.
“I thought our commitment was to truth. And 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, a more balanced account,” Crawford continued. “And, to me, that is what Tony did.”
Dokoupil forgot the rules. Journalism is dead; storytelling--narrative building--is the rule of the day, and there is no narrative more important than white people are evil. It is the foundation of all things Left. And Israel is the whitest place on Earth, metaphorically speaking.
CBS has been in turmoil since the interview, as the left-leaning staff in the news department broke down in horror.
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’s views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Top CBS executives, on a newsroom-wide call, described the interview as falling short of the network’s 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.
The episode began last Monday when Mr. Coates visited “CBS Mornings” on a publicity tour for his book “The Message,” which in one section compares Israel’s 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 “the elevation of factual complexity over self-evident morality.”
“The elevation of factual complexity over self-evident morality” is what journalists are actually supposed to do, in the olden days. Morality has to be informed by facts--all the facts that one can get--or else you wind up with skewed moral perceptions. For instance, you could describe the Ukraine war in a million ways if you pick and choose what facts to include in your moral calculation.
It would true to say that "Ukrainians are ruthlessly hunting down Russians, dropping grenades on their heads as they lie helplessly in trenches." I see countless videos of precisely that, and Ukraine brags about it! Those evil Ukrainians are killing tens or hundreds of thousands of Russians in a slaughter unseen in Europe in decades!
That is one version of reality. Another would be from the Ukrainian side: Russia has been bombing innocent civilians, destroying infrastructure, killing women and children, and has been trying to erase Ukraine from the map.
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 “context, tone and intention” of news programming. The conversation focused on Mr. Dokoupil’s tone of voice, phrasing and body language during his interview with Mr. Coates, one of the people said. Mr. Dokoupil, who joined CBS News in 2016 and became a morning anchor in 2019, is a rising star at the network who recently took on an extra hour on “CBS Mornings.” He is continuing to appear on the air.
Reality is complex. The only way to make a moral judgment is to consider all the facts and come up with your best moral judgment. Coates is doing the opposite. He is not a journalist, but a propagandist. He has picked a side, as he may, but the journalist's job is to NOT pick a side and challenge all comers with "alternative facts."
CBS runs hostile interview of pro-Palestinian black author.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 9, 2024
Staff revolt prompts network to bring in a “DEI strategist and trauma trainer.”
Offending journalist issues teary apology, endures struggle session with “race and culture” unit.
Not 2020. 2024. https://t.co/ABtSdosReg
Since the interview, Dokoupil has been called on the carpet, ridiculed in the newsroom, been forced to tearfully apologize to the staff, and racial DEI sessions have been held to deal with the trauma this all caused.
WATCH: @BariWeiss breaks down the leaked audio—obtained exclusively by The FP—from a CBS meeting in which their anchor was admonished for questioning Ta-Nehisi Coates on Israel:
— The Free Press (@TheFP) October 8, 2024
“Tony Dokoupil committed the sin of doing real journalism on morning TV.” https://t.co/7Q2WGaQx7O pic.twitter.com/5rF1SVIngb
Why? Because a white man challenged a black man about a book he wrote on a controversial topic.
There was an open debate in the CBS Mornings meeting about whether it is “fair to talk about whether Israel should exist at all.”
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) October 9, 2024
New reporting in @TheFP:https://t.co/k2c00Wwirj
The pain keeps coming for CBS, as it should.
But the fallout over the sin of Dokoupil’s questions continued on Tuesday morning during a meeting for the morning show staff.
Originally, CBS News had invited a self-described “mental health expert, DEI strategist, and trauma trainer” named Dr. Donald Grant to moderate a conversation on the issue in an all-staff meeting on Tuesday. That plan was scrapped after old social media posts from Dr. Grant surfaced—including one where he referred to South Carolina senator Tim Scott as “Uncle Tim” (a reference to “Uncle Tom”) and another of him describing a possible second Trump term as “MAGAcide” and the “death of a nation.” Seems like just the guy you should call when you want to smooth things over. (A source close to the drama told The Free Press that the network was “humiliated by his Instagram.”)
The meeting went ahead without Grant—staffers were not able to join from outside of CBS offices in order to prevent leaks. One source familiar with the proceedings suggested it was a “shit show,” with various employees “yelling.” Shawna Thomas, the show’s executive producer, was in tears. So was Dokoupil.
The fact that a CBS journalist is being publicly flogged for daring to ask Ta-Nehisi Coates about his new book (in which he attacks Israel) is further indication of the antisemitic farce that is Coates’s book. And the questions weren’t even all that hard hitting. Coates better be… https://t.co/CcwpumcKIZ
— Dumisani Washington (@DumisaniTemsgen) October 9, 2024
This is all part of the modern Cultural Revolution, where revered figures are elevated, ideology trumps inquiry, and public shaming is used to enforce the narrative.
Coates also revealed a detail that caught our eye. As he was praising King as a “great journalist and a great interviewer,” he said that “Gayle came behind the stage before we went [on] and she had gone through the book, and I’m not saying she agreed with the book. She was like, ‘I’m gonna ask you about this. I’m gonna ask you about that.’ ”
So let’s get this straight: One journalist is raked over the coals for asking tough questions, while another journalist—if Coates’s recollection is correct—previews her questions and faces no repercussions. (King did not respond to a request for comment.)
Which poses a few questions. Chief among them: Are there different rules for different journalists at CBS?
A former CBS journalist told The Free Press that “If she was showing him specific lines of questioning in advance, that would violate journalistic standards. Now are they going to investigate her and say that what she did was not in keeping with CBS standards? I suspect not.”
Asking questions is, literally, an offense to the hierarchy. This is why the ranks of independent journalists are growing day by day. As with principled Democrats rushing out the doors of their increasingly tyrannical party, independent-minded journalists are rushing out the doors as fast as they can.
That's why I subscribe to The Free Press, follow Matt Taibbi, and try to get my news from as many sources as possible (and Twitter/X, where raw, unfiltered data can be found if you look hard enough).
Journalism is dead.
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