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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.
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Trump, Harris Tied 47%-47% in Final CNN Poll
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump points towards Democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris, during a presidential debate hosted by ABC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, Sept. 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris are tied at 47% each among likely voters, according to CNN’s last nationwide poll before the Nov. 5 election.
The poll, conducted by telephone Oct. 20-23 among 1,704 registered voters and released on Friday, had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points among likely voters and plus or minus 3.2 percentage points among the full sample of registered voters.
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2 Dead, Several Seriously Wounded After Hezbollah Rocket Hits Arab Israeli Town
The attack’s victims. Photo: i24 News
i24 News – Two Arab Israelis were killed by rocket shrapnel following a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah on the Galilee town of Majd al-Krum.
The victims were named as Hassan Suad, 21, and Arjwan Manaa, 35.
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Israel and Hezbollah Trade Fire Across Lebanon Border, Blinken Calls for Urgent Resolution
A view shows damage at a site hit by an Israeli strike that killed a few journalists and wounded several others as they slept in guesthouses used by media, Lebanon’s health ministry and local media reported, in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon, October 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
An Israeli strike killed three journalists in southern Lebanon on Friday, Lebanese officials said, while Israel said Hezbollah killed two people in a strike in its north as Washington pressed for a ceasefire.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was an urgent need to get a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, a day after he said Washington did not want to see a protracted campaign in Lebanon by its ally Israel.
Israel launched its major offensive in Lebanon a month ago, saying it was targeting the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah group to secure the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from the north due to cross-border rocket attacks.
Beirut authorities say Israel’s Lebanon offensive has killed more than 2,500 people and displaced more than 1.2 million, sparking a humanitarian crisis.
Friday’s strike killed two people in Majd al-Krum in northern Israel, according to Israeli media, and followed a statement from Hezbollah saying that it targeted the northern Israeli town of Karmiel with a large missile salvo.
“The world must stop Iran now – before it’s too late,” Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said on X.
The conflict was sparked by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel which triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza, where Palestinian officials said Israeli strikes had killed at least 72 people since Thursday night.
The journalists killed in south Lebanon were Ghassan Najjar and Mohamed Reda of the pro-Iranian news outlet Al-Mayadeen and Wissam Qassem, who worked for Hezbollah’s Al-Manar, the outlets said in separate statements. Several others were wounded.
They had been staying at guesthouses in Hasbaya, a town not previously targeted, when it was hit around 3 a.m. (midnight GMT).
Five journalists have been killed in previous Israeli strikes while reporting on the conflict, including Reuters visual journalist Issam Abdallah on Oct. 13, 2023.
“This is a war crime,” Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary said. At least 18 journalists from six media outlets, including Sky News and Al-Jazeera were using the guesthouses.
“We heard the airplane flying very low – that’s what woke us up – and then we heard the two missiles,” Muhammad Farhat, a reporter with Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, said.
His footage showed overturned and damaged cars, some marked “Press.” There was no immediate comment from Israel, which in general denies deliberately attacking journalists.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said Israeli forces had fired at their troops in an observation post in southern Dhayra on Tuesday, leading them to leave the post though they remained at the base.
Israel has denied deliberately targeting the force but says Hezbollah has built strongholds in close proximity to UNIFIL sites. Its previous strikes on UNIFIL posts have drawn international condemnation.
BORDER CROSSING STRUCK
Israel has used airstrikes to pound southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs, and has also sent ground forces into southern Lebanon against Hezbollah.
The military said it struck weapon production sites and Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut as well as Hezbollah targets around the Jousieh border crossing in the northern Bekaa Valley.
It said Hezbollah used the crossing, controlled by the Syrian military, to transfer weapons into Lebanon.
Lebanon’s transport minister Ali Hamieh said the Israeli strike had knocked the Jousieh crossing out of service, leaving the northern route as the only way to Syria.
The UN refugee agency said the strikes were hindering refugees’ attempts to flee. UNHCR spokesperson Rula Amin said some 430,000 people have crossed to Syria since Israel’s campaign started. Lebanon has previously been a major destination for refugees from the Syrian civil war.
“The attacks on the border crossings are a major concern,” Amin said. “They are blocking the path to safety for people fleeing conflict.”
‘REAL URGENCY’
The Israeli campaign spiraled out of a year of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah, which opened fire on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas, a day after it launched the Oct. 7 attack.
“We have a sense of real urgency in getting to a diplomatic resolution and the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, such that there can be real security along border between Israel and Lebanon,” Blinken said in London.
He said it was important so “people at both sides of the border can have the confidence to… return to their homes”.
Hezbollah has kept fighting despite heavy blows, including the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah. Israel said five of its soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon, after announcing on Thursday the deaths of five others.
The Israeli military said it had uncovered an underground command center in a village close to the border with Israel and a site concealed in wooded terrain where Kornet anti-tank missiles, launchers, hand grenades and rifles were stored.
Washington has expressed hope that the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks, could provide an impetus for an end to fighting.
Officials said on Thursday that US and Israeli negotiators will gather in Doha in the coming days to try and restart talks toward a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who met Blinken in London, said “ethnic cleansing” was taking place in northern Gaza. Israel denies such accusations, saying it is separating civilians from Hamas terrorists and moving them to safer areas.
Safadi said: “We are at the moment now where nothing justifies the continuation of the wars. Guns have to go silent.”
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