Outside the Beltway

Walter Cronkite on Television During Ford-Carter Debate by Thomas J. O'Halloran, 1976 (LOC)
O’Halloran/Library of Congress

A New Day at CBS News

Fewer lies! Fewer experts!

James Joyner
19

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Tony Dokoupil, who takes over as anchor for the CBS Evening News Monday, put out an op-ed last night titled “Don’t just trust me. Make me earn it.“

A lot has changed since the first person sat in the Evening News chair. For me, the biggest difference is this: people don’t trust us like they used to.

And it’s not just us. It’s all legacy media.

That much is unassailable.

I get it. I’ve been hearing about it from just about everybody, for more than 20 years, as I’ve traveled America on assignment. My mom’s neighbors in West Virginia. My own neighbors in New York City. Thousands of conversations in between.

Sometimes they want to talk to me about our coverage of NAFTA or the Iraq War. Other times, it’s about Hillary Clinton’s emails or Russiagate. Or more recently, COVID lockdowns, Hunter Biden’s laptop or the president’s fitness for office.

Okay.

The point is that on too many stories the press missed the story. Because we’ve taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.

Granting that I’m both an advocate and an academic, what the hell does that even mean? Is CBS now going to feature analysis from randos on the street? Value non-experts equally with experts? Is topic selection going to be based on polling rather than the judgment of reporters and producers?

I know this because, at certain points, I have been you. I have felt that way too. I have felt like what I was seeing and hearing on the news didn’t reflect what I was seeing and hearing in my own life. And that the most urgent questions simply weren’t being asked.

Which questions were those?

I know this because, at certain points, I have been you. I have felt that way too. I have felt like what I was seeing and hearing on the news didn’t reflect what I was seeing and hearing in my own life. And that the most urgent questions simply weren’t being asked.

Fine. But what questions weren’t being asked? Which ones will you ask?

I report for you.

Which “you”? Certainly not me, since I’m an advocate and an academic. There are some 340 million Americans. Surely, they are not all the same.

Which means I tell you what I know, when I know it and how I know it. And when I get it wrong, I’ll tell you that too. It also means I’m going to talk to everybody, and hold everyone in public life to the same standard. And because I became a journalist to talk to people. I love talking to people about what works in this country, what doesn’t, and not only what should change, but the good ideas that never should. 

I have no idea what this means. You can’t possibly “talk to everybody.” Again, there are some 340 million Americans and roughly 8 billion people on the planet.

I think telling the truth is one of them.

Which means what? What lies has CBS been telling us up until now?

Hold me to it.

Okay.

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19 responses to “A New Day at CBS News”

  1. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    I found this list of interest:

    NAFTA or the Iraq War. Other times, it’s about Hillary Clinton’s emails or Russiagate. Or more recently, COVID lockdowns, Hunter Biden’s laptop or the president’s fitness for office.

    First, all of these are MAGA issues one way or another.

    Second, so, yes, we were told things about Iraq that were not true (and that were boosted by the MSM), and that had profound consequences.

    But the rest of it is either a matter of interpretation (the value and efficacy of NAFTA) or real news stories of varying complexity, but all of which could be a potential stew of conspiracy theories.

    10
  2. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    In short, the rejection of expertise and the promise of populist news, plus the appeal to conspiracy theories, is not encouraging.

    12
  3. Sleeping Dog Avatar
    Sleeping Dog

    There is no reason to look at a story emanating from CBS news, they are no different than Faux or Newsmax.

    But yes, that essay is dissembling.

    3
  4. ptfe Avatar
    ptfe

    A really good outline of how to spin up bullshit like the trans panic and “migrant caravans” and anti-vax “health” craze.

    It says that your experience (for some limited set of “your”) is identical to every other experience and therefore reporting should just tell you what you want to hear. Don’t like trans people? We’ll tell you all the ways they’re bad. Racist? We’ll tell you your immigrant neighbor is probably stealing money from you so you won’t feel bad. In denial about COVID? Well, nobody you know has died from it, so it probably isn’t that bad so what’s the big fuss anyway?

    That “academics and experts” bit is just the right-wing distortion of opinion into well-known fact. The expertise well is easy to poison by letting unqualified people posing as experts spray the world with their uninformed opinions if you’re willing to parrot their ignorance as “common sense” or something. This is a rampant media problem, but it has nothing to do with the viewer and everything to do with the journalistic responsibility of vetting sources.

    Which, ironically, this statement makes no mention of.

    Ultimately it’s just a mash of cliches and nonsense.

    4
  5. Bobert Avatar
    Bobert

    Blah, Blah, Blah,
    Tell me how to actually communicate with you Tony, not your producers, not your assistants —- you personally.
    Otherwise, it’s just blah, blah, blah

    1
  6. James Joyner Avatar
    James Joyner

    @Steven L. Taylor: @ptfe: I’ve literally never heard of this fellow until this morning, and haven’t watched CBS News since Rather was the anchor. But, yes, this is at best gobbledygook and at worst a signaling that CBS is joining the ranks of ideologically-driven infotainment.

    EDITED TO ADD:

    So, looking at his Wiki, I see that he’s been in something like the news business since 2007, with stints at Newsweek, The Daily Beast, and NBC/MSNBC before coming to CBS in 2016. Since 2019, he’s anchored CBS’ morning show.

    Nothing particularly ideological stands out, except possibly this:

    On September 30, 2024, Dokoupil discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with author Ta-Nehisi Coates during the latter’s appearance on CBS Mornings to promote the book The Message. Dokoupil implied that the book “reads like the work of an extremist” and questioned Coates about his opinion regarding Israel’s right to exist. Some CBS staffers were angered by the interview, and CBS executive Adrienne Roark said that an internal review found that it did not meet network standards. Dokoupil was defended by Paramount chair Shari Redstone and other CBS staffers, including chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford, who said that a journalist is obliged to ask tough questions when interviewing someone presenting a one-sided view.

    I vaguely remember the controversy. Dokoupil converted to Judaism quite some time back, so it may just be personal.

    Additionally, his second wife is Katy Tur of MSNBC. Her Wiki notes,

    Tur was NBC News’s and MSNBC’s embedded reporter on the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign. As a reporter for NBC, Tur was assigned the task of informing the Trump campaign about the Access Hollywood tape that the network had in its possession, featuring Trump’s remarks about women in a conversation with Billy Bush.

    On several occasions during his campaign rallies, Trump singled out Tur in his criticism of the press. At an event in Florida, Tur was booed by Trump supporters and, according to CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, verbally harassed. According to Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, “(Trump) didn’t mean it in any malicious way”, and he did not want anyone to attack or harass her.

    In 2017, Tur received the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.

    Not exactly a MAGA signal.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    2
  7. Eusebio Avatar
    Eusebio

    I didn’t know him by name — just that he’s Katy Tur’s boyfriend/husband. Here’s a bit of his story from 2016 (reported in Esquire in 2019)…

    It was early January 2016 and Tony Dokoupil was complaining to his then-girlfriend Katy Tur about his career over falafel in Brooklyn. He’d had his dream job as a reporter, writing cover stories for Newsweek. Then the magazine collapsed. He moved to the NBC enterprise unit and that shuttered. He was shuffled over to the NBC investigations team and that shrunk. He felt there were no safe jobs in writing.

    On the broadcast side, however, Tur’s career was flourishing as MSNBC’s campaign reporter covering Donald Trump. So, when their conversation turned to a news story Dokoupil had been reading about armed occupiers who’d taken hold of federal land in Oregon, she had an idea.

    “You know that story, you’ve covered stories like that,” she told him. “You need to pitch this person right now and tell them that you’ll get on a plane tonight and you’ll go out there and you’ll do that story. You should do it.”

    A couple days later, Dokoupil was in the middle of frigid Oregon, face to face with armed ranchers standing guard outside the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Around 10 p.m., after the rest of the reporters had gone home, one of the men dragged a rocking chair to the end of the driveway, slowly unzipped his rifle from its case, and declared: “Come and get me FBI. Come and get me, I’m going to die for this.”

    Dokoupil called into Lawrence O’Donnell’s producer on MSNBC and said, “Take me now, please put me on.” During the prime evening time slot, Dokoupil interviewed LaVoy Finicum live on-air for 10 minutes. (Police would later shoot and kill Finicum.) The interview went viral, launching Dokoupil’s broadcast career.

    Now, if I were considering watching Dokoupil’s broadcasts, maybe I’d want to know how he covered the subsequent events… the fate of the guy he interviewed, the trial and not guilty verdict of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupiers, and the trial and not guilty verdict of an FBI agent for his actions associated with the case.

    2
  8. gVOR10 Avatar
    gVOR10

    @James Joyner:

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    May one suspect a Maitlin/Carville situation, divided by loosely held ideology, but united by a deeply held belief in careerism?

    5
  9. Gustopher Avatar
    Gustopher

    After Bari Weiss spiked the 60 Minutes story on CECOT, I’d have serious reservations about joining CBS in any capacity if I were a journalist. If we even call a newsreader a journalist.

    I assume he’s on board with the current management’s priorities until he demonstrates otherwise.

    8
  10. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @James Joyner:

    Not exactly a MAGA signal.

    I mean, Tur’s bio isn’t, I agree.

    And I can’t say that Dokoupil’s is, either.

    But I do think his missive that you dissected was MAGA-coded. And at this point, I agree with @Gustopher that joining up at this point is MAGA-coded.

    6
  11. gVOR10 Avatar
    gVOR10

    We do seem to be in a post-modern era of individually tailored truth.

    FOX does well by telling their audience what they want to hear. To the extent CBS has lost credibility, it’s with that audience for telling the truth. One wonders what the plan is. Is there really a market for a second broadcast FOX “News”? Is Bezos trying to be a second FOX in print, beside the Murdoch owned WSJ? Or does he see it as an embarrassment with the Trump admin, and worth couch cushion change money to Bezos, so he’s happy to let it just quietly die. In the modern era network newsrooms are independent profit centers, and not very good ones. Is Ellison just willing to let it die? Would the FCC allow it to die?

    1
  12. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    Expect the worst form those willing to work for MAGAts, and you won’t be disappointed.

    1
  13. Scott F. Avatar
    Scott F.

    From Dokoupil’s op-ed:

    It also means I’m going to talk to everybody, and hold everyone in public life to the same standard.

    Nudge me when David Ellison/Bari Weiss allow him to hold Trump to anything approaching “the same standard” as anyone else in public life. Until then, Tony shall be ignored.

    BTW, putting this OP under a picture of Walter Cronkite is a real gut punch. The idea of a news anchor as “the most trusted man in America” is another thing MAGA has destroyed.

    4
  14. Charley in Cleveland Avatar
    Charley in Cleveland

    Doukopil got the gig – probably – because he was already under contract, has old school anchor good looks (think Ted Baxter), and wasn’t going to rock the boat like a real journalist would with Bari Weiss telling him to tow (toe?) the MAGA line.

    1
  15. James Joyner Avatar
    James Joyner

    @Steven L. Taylor: He’s been with CBS for more than a decade but, yeah, I’d have serious concerns about becoming the anchor under present circumstances.

  16. dazedandconfused Avatar
    dazedandconfused

    A possible (but embarrassing and thereby unmentionable) driver: A desire for their shareholders to be as happy as FOX/News Corp shareholders are. The profits have always been higher in entertainment, which usually involves pandering.

    1
  17. Michael Reynolds Avatar
    Michael Reynolds

    @Charley in Cleveland:
    Toe.

    3
  18. Ken_L Avatar
    Ken_L

    Is CBS now going to feature analysis from randos on the street?

    I fear that’s exactly what they intend to do, in the form of risible “focus groups”, “townhalls” and “investigative reporting” along the lines of David Brooks’ and Salena Zito’s intrepid safaris into darkest mid-west diners.

    1
  19. wr Avatar
    wr

    @Scott F.: “Nudge me when David Ellison/Bari Weiss allow him to hold Trump to anything approaching “the same standard” as anyone else in public life. Until then, Tony shall be ignored.”

    How about holding the Ellisons and Weiss to the same standard? Don’t think Tony will be doing that any time soon…

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