Former CNN anchor Don Lemon blasted CBS News leadership for forcing one of its executives to meet with the DEI unit after staffers complained he was too harsh on an anti-Israel reporter.
CBS News faced backlash after “CBS Mornings” anchor Tony Dokoupil grilled journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates in part 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 the network’s management afterward about his handling of the interview.
The Jewish anchor was forced to meet with CBS News’ standards and practices team, as well as the Race and Culture Unit.
CBS executives assured the offended staff 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 executives should not have treated Dokoupil that way and should instead have praised the interview as an example of “good journalism.”
“CBS should have responded, saying this is good journalism and this is going to spark another conversation and that’s what we do at CBS News instead of, like, shaming their anchor and doing a the whole DEI, you know,” Lemon said.
“They could have handled it better. They could have had the conversation openly with the people who were doing it and then with others,” he added.
Instead, CBS should have aired a candid dialogue about the controversial interview, Lemon suggested.
“Why Do Inmates Run the Asylum?” he asked bluntly.
Lemon continued to reiterate that leadership should listen to complaints while still staying close to its anchor.
“[W]hat you do is say, ‘that’s great. This is what journalism should be. It’s not supposed to be perfect.’ Sometimes it’s messy. Conversations are messy, and often times in those messy conversations, you reach a consensus. Otherwise, if you are afraid to have those conversations and over-censor 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 was written in Coates’ book, but argued that 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” response that aired on the Oct. 6 episode of “Face the Nation” to promote the “60 Minutes” sit-down was edited out of the main edition of the show that aired on Monday, Oct. 7. .
CBS has faced pressure to release the transcript, or unedited video, as many wonder if Harris’ widely mocked response was simply cut for time or removed to help the Democratic presidential candidate.
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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