Shari Redstone says CBS leaders made ‘bad mistake’ with handling of Ta-Nehisi Coates interview fallout

By Hadas Gold and Liam Reilly, CNN

New York (CNN) — Shari Redstone, the chair of CBS parent company Paramount Global, said Wednesday that CBS leadership made a “bad mistake” with their handling of “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil’s contentious interview last week with author Ta-Nehisi Coates.

In stark opposition to what CBS editorial leadership told staff on Monday, Redstone said she did not think Dokoupil had violated the network’s editorial standards when he grilled Coates over the content of his new book.

“I think Tony did a great job with that interview. I think he handled himself and showed the world and modeled what civil discourse is. He showed that there was accountability, that there is a system of checks and balances, and frankly, I was very proud of the work that he did,” Redstone said Wednesday during a panel at Advertising Week in New York.

Redstone said she had expressed her support to Dokoupil directly, but that she’s “very glad” CBS had Coates on the air to discuss the acclaimed author’s new book, “The Message.”

“But we have to also provide the opportunity to challenge him on what he says, just like we challenge everybody else,” Redstone said.

Coates, a National Book Award winner, released “The Message” last week, in which he portrays Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as a moral crime, one that many Americans can’t or won’t face directly.

During a daily editorial meeting Monday, CBS News executives said Dokoupil had violated the network’s editorial standards during the Coates interview, where the host compared the book to “extremist” writings and challenged Coates for excluding the Israeli perspective in his book.

“I have to say, when I read the book, I imagine if I took your name out of it, took away the awards, the acclaim, took the cover off the book, publishing house goes away, the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist,” Dokoupil said to Coates.

On Wednesday, Redstone said the network’s executives made a “bad mistake” in how they handled the ensuing controversy over the interview.

“I’ve been working with the CEOs. I’ve been working with the woman who does a lot of our diversity training, and I think we all agree that this was not handled correctly, and we all agree that something needs to be done,” Redstone said.

Redstone has long been a supporter of Israel and has worked in the past year on efforts to combat antisemitism.

“People need to understand the core issues and what they’re talking about. We need to have better education about how to challenge people in the civil way, which, frankly, I think Tony did,” Redstone said at the event. “We need to have, most important, standards that are applied to everyone on all issues. You can’t have one standard for somebody who has one position and another standard for somebody who has another position.”

In the wake of internal complaints over the interview, CBS News and Stations president and CEO Wendy McMahon and her top deputy Adrienne Roark enlisted the network’s standards and practices unit to conduct a review of the discussion. The news division’s race and culture unit was involved as well.

A person familiar with CBS’ review defended the network’s actions on Wednesday, telling CNN the issue was “handled respectfully.”

“This issue was red hot, and there were many, many, many people in the organization who were concerned about how that interview was handled,” the person said.

Several correspondents and producers had expressed concern with Dokoupil’s conduct in numerous instances, beyond the Coates interview.

“It’s clear this was an issue that required a process and serious conversations and serious reviews, and that’s what happened.”

During a “CBS Mornings” staff meeting on Tuesday, Dokoupil stood by his questioning of Coates, a person close to the show told CNN. The person said that despite Redstone’s comments, they believe the situation is “calming down” and that “after some important conversations” they are “ready to move forward again as a team.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting and context.

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