Ex-CNN host Don Lemon chided CBS News for how it handled internal backlash to anchor Tony Dokoupil’s interview with Ta-Nehsi Coates earlier this month.
Ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon ripped CBS News leadership for forcing one of its anchors to meet with the “DEI” unit after staffers complained he was too tough on an anti-Israel journalist.
CBS News faced backlash after “CBS Mornings” anchor Tony Dokoupil grilled journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates on a section of his new book, “The Message,” which addresses the Israel-Palestine conflict. Dokoupil raised concerns about anti-Israel bias in the book and questioned whether he believed Israel had “a right to exist.”
According to The New York Times, some of Dokoupil’s colleagues complained to network leadership afterward about his handling of the interview. The Jewish anchor was forced to meet with both the CBS News standards and practices team as well as the Race and Culture Unit. CBS executives reassured offended staffers that the interview did not meet the company’s “editorial standards,” according to audio obtained by the Free Press.
Lemon responded to the saga on his YouTube show this week, arguing that corporate leaders should not have treated Dokoupil that way and should’ve instead commended the interview as an example of “good journalism.”
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“CBS should have responded, saying this is good journalism and this will spark another conversation and this is what we do at CBS News instead of, like, embarrassing their anchor and doing a whole DEI, you know, thing,” Lemon said.
“They could have handled it in the best way. They could have had the conversation out in the open with the very people who were doing it and then others,” he added.
CBS should’ve broadcast an open dialogue about the contentious interview instead, Lemon suggested.
“Why are the inmates running the asylum?” he bluntly asked.
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Lemon went on to reiterate that leadership should listen to the complaints while still standing by its anchor.
“[W]hat you do is say, ‘this is great. This is what journalism is supposed to be. It’s not supposed to be perfect.’ Sometimes it’s messy. Conversations are messy and often times in those messy conversations, you come to a consensus. Otherwise, if you’re afraid to have those conversations and you overcensor them, then you get nothing. What’s the point?” Lemon said.
The liberal journalist said he didn’t agree with everything Dokoupil said or what’s written in Coates’ book, but argued journalists should still be allowed to ask tough questions without corporate overreach.
“Stay out of it and let the journalists do the journalism,” he said.
CBS News did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
CBS News has also been embroiled in controversy over how it presented a recent interview with Vice President Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes.”
Harris’ lengthy “word salad” answer that was aired on the Oct. 6 episode of “Face the Nation” to promote the “60 Minutes” sit-down was edited out of the primetime edition of the show that aired Monday, Oct. 7. CBS has faced pressure to release the transcript, or unedited video, as many question whether Harris’ widely mocked answer was simply cut for time or removed to help the Democratic presidential nominee.
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
