ADL defends anchor Tony Dokoupil after CBS News claimed anchor had ‘ax to grind’ in tense interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates over Israel
A prominent Jewish civil rights group has come to the defense of Tony Dokoupil after the “CBS Mornings” anchor’s bosses found he had an “ax to grind” during his tough interview with controversial author Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Post has learned.
Jonathan Greenblatt, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, contacted CBS News chief Wendy McMahon on Monday just after it was reported that Dokoupil was reprimanded over his interview with Coates last week, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Insiders said the move to discipline Dokoupil followed an investigation by the network’s diversity and inclusion department. Several CBS staffers also had complained to their bosses that his questioning of Coates was too biased in favor of Israel, sources said.
In response, CBS brass concluded that Dokoupil’s questioning indicated he had an “ax to grind,” and didn’t “set his personal feelings and beliefs aside,” according to a leaked recording of an editorial meeting.
Now, the ADL is worried that Dokoupil could lose his job for pressing Coates on his far-left views about Israel in his latest book. Ali Zelenko, the ADL’s senior vice president of external affairs, was slated to speak on Tuesday with McMahon, according to sources.
In an interview with The Post, Greenblatt confirmed he spoke with McMahon on Monday, and made the organization’s position clear: That Dokoupil did nothing wrong in challenging Coates’ “one sided” views about the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“I just wanted to know what Dokoupil did wrong in questioning Coates’s conclusions,” Greenblatt added. “And we’re continuing to ask those questions.”
Greenblatt said he also told McMahon it’s “highly insensitive” to be reprimanding Dokoupil in a company wide setting, particularly on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre.
Greenblatt declined to comment on McMahon’s response, saying the conversation was off the record.
Press officials for CBS and its parent Paramount Global, didn’t respond to numerous telephone calls and emails for comment.
Also seeking answers will be CBS’s new owners, the independent studio known as Skydance, run by David Ellison, known for producing mega-hit “Top Gun: Maverick,” The Post has learned.
Ellison’s team recently reached an agreement with CBS’s parent, Paramount and the controlling Redstone family to take over the company. The deal, valued at $28 billion, is scheduled to close next year.
Ellison’s father is Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who helped finance the transaction along with private equity firm RedBird Capital. The right-leaning billionaire also is a longtime supporter of Israel and friend of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Jeff Shell, a RedBird partner and former NBCU chief, will be in charge of CBS and has been informed of the contretemps involving Dokoupil, sources said.
A spokeswoman for SkyDance had no comment.
Last Monday on “CBS Mornings,” Dokoupil, who is Jewish, questioned Coates over the conclusion in his new book “The Message,” that Israel is a state “built on ethnocracy” and “apartheid.”
During the interview, Dokoupil also asked Coates whether Palestinians deserve any blame for the continued conflict including the Oct. 7 massacre.
Coates, who is black, is a Pulitzer Prize winner known for his controversial writing on racial issues including calls for reparations for slavery.
Critics of “The Message” have denounced the book for poor scholarship on the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and have claimed that he essentially calls for the elimination of the Jewish state.
