Many staffers at CBS News are not thrilled with editor-in-chief Bari Weiss tapping Tony Dokoupil as the next anchor of the network’s flagship nightly news broadcast, describing the CBS Mornings host as a “mediocre straight white man” who only got the job because his views align with Weiss’ pro-Israel stance.
“It’s an insult to the storied news giants who came before him,” one CBS News reporter told The Independent.
After weeks of speculation about who would lead CBS Evening News, which has been mired in third place for years and had been targeted for a reboot since Weiss was hired in October, Dokoupil was handed the job this week and is scheduled to take over in the new year. Status News first reported on Dokoupil’s move to weeknights.
While the decision has been made, the network does not plan to make a staff announcement Tuesday, The Independent has learned. CBS News did, however, officially announce that former ABC News reporter Matt Gutman had joined the network as chief correspondent and fill-in anchor.
The Independent has reached out to representatives for CBS News, Weiss and Dokoupil.
Dokoupil, who has been the co-host of CBS Mornings since 2018, became the frontrunner for the job once held by Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather after Weiss struck out in her desire to bring in a high-profile name from an outside network.
Shortly after she was hired by Paramount chief David Ellison, who also bought her “anti-woke” digital media outlet The Free Press, Weiss courted CNN mainstay Anderson Cooper and Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier as potential candidates to take over CBS Evening News. She also approached Fox News anchor Dana Perino, who is a vocal fan of Weiss and The Free Press.
Baier and Perino, however, are both locked into multi-year deals with the conservative cable giant. Cooper, who told associates he was not interested in taking the job, eventually signed a contract extension with CNN.
In the meantime, the two co-anchors who joined CBS Evening News in January amid the latest reboot of the ratings-challenged broadcast both announced they were leaving the show and the network amid the search for a new face of the program.
John Dickerson, who had spent 16 years with CBS and previously served as anchor of Face the Nation, revealed in October that he was leaving at the end of the year. Last week, his colleague Maurice DuBois also announced that he was exiting the show and CBS News, with his last broadcast on December 18.
With both DuBois and Dickerson publicly done with the show before the holidays, Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski were pressed to make a decision sooner rather than later.
Though former CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell – who had been actively lobbying Weiss to regain her old job – and newly hired correspondent Matt Gutman were possible candidates, Dokoupil was always the preferred choice. According to the New York Post, CBS News has “scrambled” in recent days to sign Dokoupil to a CBS Evening News contract after DuBois’ resignation.
Dokoupil, meanwhile, had emerged as a favorite of Weiss’ well before she first set foot in the CBS newsroom.
Last year, Dokoupil sparked controversy with his contentious and aggressive interview with celebrated author Ta-Nehisi Coates on the subject of Palestine and Israel. At one point in the tense morning interview, the anchor told Coates that his book The Message “would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.”
Dokoupil was quickly admonished by CBS News executives Wendy McMahon and Adrienne Roarke – neither of whom are with the network now – for violating the network’s editorial standards with the interview. Weiss, who describes herself as a “Zionist fanatic,” and The Free Press vehemently defended Dokpuoil in a series of articles at the time while blasting CBS News’ reprimand of the host.
“There are some people at CBS who think that ‘Israel’s existence as a state should be part of fair conversation,’ said one CBS source,” Weiss wrote in one piece. “Can you imagine journalists having that conversation about any other country?”
Since Weiss’ installation as CBS News’ top editorial voice, Dokoupil has scored an exclusive interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which was largely arranged by Weiss.
Network staffers who spoke with The Independent noted that it was “not shocking” that Dokoupil had ascended to the CBS Evening News perch under Weiss’ leadership, considering that they appear to see eye to eye on Israel and the war in Gaza.
“Tony’s pro-Israel slant is exactly what Bari wants. She likely caught the attention of the Ellisons after using that leaked audio from the CBS editorial meeting about Tony’s unhinged, off-script, xenophobic questioning of Ta-Nehisi Coates last year,” the CBS News reporter said.
“He’s clearly been rewarded with the Evening News throne,” the reporter added before snarking about the dwindling viewership of the program. “Although, some might argue it’s more of a toilet seat now.”
According to another network staffer, it was “amazing how Bari has the full power of CBS News, including its deep pockets entirely in her hands,” yet she was only “able to come up” with Dokoupil as the new anchor. Paramount and Ellison just launched a $108 billion hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros. Discovery that would include merging CNN with CBS News if successful.
At the same time, the staffer pointed out that Dokoupil had previously told his CBS Mornings colleagues that he wasn’t interested in jumping to the nightly broadcast, noting that it is “a job he didn’t even want.”
One CBS News insider took issue with Dokoupil violating editorial standards to becoming the face of the network’s flagship evening news telecast within the span of a year.
Of course, Weiss has also complained recently that the network’s Standards and Practices team has “too much power” and she doesn’t see the point of keeping them around. On top of that, during a recent round of brutal layoffs, the network’s vaunted race and ulture unit – which was supposed to be folded into the standards unit – was disbanded.
“Tony violated protocol with his interview with T’Coates and got embarrassed when it went viral for the wrong reasons. He pouted and was protected by Shari Redstone and now Bari,” the insider stated, referencing the former chair of Paramount and her support of Dokoupil. “While dragging the entire news organization under the bus.”
While other network employees and insiders grumbled that Dokoupil’s ascension under Weiss shows that “Bibi apologists” now have “full reign to change the narrative on Israel,” they also suggested this is part of an anti-diversity push by the network.
Besides Weiss being a vocal DEI critic and Ellison promising the Trump administration he’d get rid of diversity hiring policies at the network as part of the Paramount-Skydance merger, CBS News has come under fire for only firing women on-air personalities – half of whom are people of color – during its last round of layoffs.
“This is all about protecting Israel and punishing POC,” the CBS News insider said.
“How unoriginal to give the job to a mediocre straight white man who can’t ask a tough question unless it aligns with his own personal agenda,” the network reporter declared, adding: “It’s an insult to the storied news giants who came before him.”
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