By Piers Morgan
“Journalism,” said legendary CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite, “is what we need to make democracy work. In seeking truth, you have to get both sides of a story.”
Now, you might think this is a statement so self-evident that Mr. Cronkite should have been given the Award for the Bleeding Obvious to add to his vast trophy cabinet for being the greatest journalist in American history.
But it now seems such a mindset is the opposite philosophy, at least to the people who run CBS News.
Last week, I watched a surprisingly lively interview with controversial author Ta-Nehisi Coates on “CBS Mornings,” conducted predominantly by one of the three anchors that day, Tony Dokoupil.
Coates has written an unashamedly pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel new book, and Dokoupil, a Jewish man, challenged him about its very obvious bias.
It was an insightful debate, with Dokoupil going unusually hard in his questioning for that time of day, suggesting that Coates sounded like an extremist at times in the book, and the interviewee giving as good as he got.
But it never got out of control, nor felt uncomfortable, and Dokoupil was respectful throughout, albeit determined to make Coates explain himself as to why he hadn’t tried to balance the book with more arguments from Israel’s viewpoint — citing “the little kids blown to bits” in terrorist attacks and the fact that Israel is “surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it.”
He then asked directly: “Is it because you just don’t believe that Israel, in any condition, has a right to exist?”
Coates responded that Israel’s side of the story gets lots of media coverage, and so he wanted to elevate Palestinian views.
In other words, he deliberately chose to write a one-sided book, and Dokoupil was therefore absolutely right to provide some much-needed balance.
In fact, it would have been a dereliction of his journalistic duty if he hadn’t, and an abandonment of Cronkite’s maxim about journalism.
Predictably, there was a lot of angry social media reaction to the interview from pro-Palestinian activists who simply won’t tolerate any inkling of fairness toward Israel.
get this kind of blowback all the time after my often-fierce debates on “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” and I also get lots of furious blowback from pro-Israel activists who think I’m too biased against their side, which I would suggest means I’m getting the balance about right.
But it’s what then happened behind the scenes at CBS News that was far more shocking and disturbing.
A group of employees in the news division went to their senior executives to express their “concerns” over Dokoupil’s handling of the interview.
Dokoupil was summoned for a meeting with the CBS News standards and practices team, and its in-house Race and Culture Unit.
And on Monday, he was publicly reprimanded during the newsroom morning call by Adrienne Roark, CBS president of editorial and news gathering, who said: “After a review of our coverage, including the interview, it’s clear that there are times we have not met our editorial standards. This has been addressed, and it will continue to be in the future.”
She added: “I want to be clear: We will still ask tough questions. We will still hold people accountable. That’s part of our job, too. But we will do so objectively, and that means very plainly checking our biases and opinions at the door.”
Sorry?
What could be more objective than a journalist asking tough questions and holding to account a hyper-partisan author who’s written a hyper-partisan book?
I didn’t see Dokoupil showing bias, he just firmly challenged what Coates himself had admitted was a very unbalanced piece of work.
To her credit, CBS chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford bravely questioned her management’s cowardly bulls–t on the same call.
“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,” she said. “To me, that is what Tony did.”
Exactly.
To compound their management failings, CBS then absurdly asked self-styled “mental health expert, DEI strategist and trauma trainer” Dr. Donald Grant to moderate an all-staff meeting about it all.
Presumably so the poor little woke wastrels who were offended by Dokoupil doing his job can have their sensitive censorious souls caressed?
They’d be better off getting Donald Duck to talk to them given how quackers this all is.
Walter Cronkite used to sign off his nightly broadcasts with the words, “And that’s the way it is” and explained: “To me, that encapsulates the newsman’s highest ideal: to report the facts as he sees them, without regard for the consequences or controversy that may ensue.”
By chucking Tony Dokoupil under the bus in such a shameful manner, CBS News executives have sent a message to all their journalists that the way it is now stinks — and that would make the great Cronkite turn in his grave.
