RSS
The Ta-Nehisi Coates-CBS Disgrace: A Case Study in Mainstream Media’s Spinelessness
In a seven-minute interview on September 30, CBS anchor Tony Dokoupil pressed author Ta-Nehisi Coates on the most contentious parts of his new essay collection, The Message, which tackles the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The fallout from that interview continues to reverberate, with Paramount Global’s CEO, Shari Redstone reportedly admitting that CBS’s decision to reprimand Dokoupil was a “mistake.”
Dokoupil’s line of questioning was direct but fair: “Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it?”
The CBS journalist also noted that the book “would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist,” highlighting its omission of any mention of Palestinian terrorism.
Instead of engaging in an open debate, The Free Press revealed how CBS succumbed to internal backlash and forced Dokoupil to apologize. This reprimand of a journalist for merely doing his job reveals a glaring double standard in how major networks handle guests’ views on Israel.
The hypocrisy is staggering.
CBS staffers weren’t upset because Coates was unfairly treated, but likely because it might have been the first time he was genuinely challenged.
For years, Coates has enjoyed kid-glove treatment from a media eager to praise him.
Take his recent interview with Chris Hayes on MSNBC.
Hayes echoed nearly everything Coates said, even going so far as to declare that Israel is committing a “moral abomination.” When asked if critics might accuse him of engaging in a “one-sided propaganda tour of Israel,” Coates was handed a convenient opportunity to deny it, invoking segregation and apartheid: “I am against segregation. I am against apartheid. I am against Jim Crow. Nothing will make that OK.”
This false equivalence — comparing Israel to apartheid-era South Africa and the segregationist United States — went unchallenged, presented as unvarnished truth.
Similarly, an interview between Coates and journalist Michel Martin on Christiane Amanpour’s show was another exercise in softball journalism. When discussing Coates’ comparison of Israel to Jim Crow America, Martin lobbed a question tailor-made to invite more inflammatory rhetoric: “You say it’s a place where the glare of racism burned more intensely than anywhere else in your life. Tell us why.”
This provided Coates the platform to make blatantly inaccurate claims about “roads only for Israeli settlers” and separate roads for Palestinians — an anti-Israel trope. The interview concluded with Martin summing up Coates’ position: “So your core conclusions are: it’s an apartheid regime, and the life there for Palestinians is unbearable.”
Coates responded with more unchecked hyperbole: “It’s unbearable. It’s demeaning. It’s dehumanizing. And it’s morally unjustifiable.”
Unbelievable. @CBSNews reprimanded a journalist for doing his job—challenging @TaNehisiCoats‘ limited understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. https://t.co/ZBEBcReNjg
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 8, 2024
Then, in an October 3 interview on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart offered Coates near-universal praise, applauding him for his supposed bravery: “Through your discomfort … you’ve done the most important thing, which is trying to advance an understanding of a complexity that we haven’t figured out in 10,000 years.”
Stewart’s flattery only underscores the absurdity of the situation: Coates is being lauded for “figuring out” millennia of conflict during a 10-day trip to Israel.
The contrast becomes even more stark when comparing this fawning treatment to a CBS interview between Gayle King and Thomas Hand, whose daughter Emily was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7.
In discussing life in Israel before the massacre, Hand reflected: “The greatest movement towards peace that Israel ever did was pulling out of Gaza. Israel has never made such a big step towards peace, and it got us nothing. They didn’t make even a baby step back toward peace.”
WATCH: CBS’s Gayle King LECTURES the father of a eight-year-old Israeli girl being held hostage by Hamas that “innocent children in Pales –Palestinians…are dying” too just as “innocent Israeli children” and, b/c of “politics,” “no one seems to be able to say enough, stop” pic.twitter.com/5qkg2QUMNn
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 15, 2023
Rather than allowing this poignant statement to stand, King pivoted to ask about innocent Palestinian children dying. Hand’s response was as raw as it was revealing: “I’m not interested in politics at all. My only concern is getting Emily back, whatever it takes.”
CBS staffers said nothing about this segment. But Coates being asked a question? That crossed the line.
The CBS-Coates controversy perfectly encapsulates a troubling dynamic within mainstream media: challenge pro-Israel narratives, and you’ll be praised for your courage. Question anti-Israel falsehoods, and you’ll be forced to apologize.
Ta-Nehisi Coates has been elevated as an intellectual authority, yet his writings expose a limited grasp of both history and modern geopolitics.
Sadly, the erosion of journalistic integrity in the United States means that anyone daring to point out uncomfortable truths is treated as a pariah. Dokoupil’s questioning exposed the media’s weakness, and they couldn’t tolerate it.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post The Ta-Nehisi Coates-CBS Disgrace: A Case Study in Mainstream Media’s Spinelessness first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
The post UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
The post Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.