CBS News is in chaos after its far left staff stridently objected to an interview one of its morning hosts, Tony Dokoupil, did with Ta-Nehisi Coates in which he pressed the bestselling author about his anti-Israel rhetoric in his new book. A top news executive told staff on Monday that the interview did not meet the Tiffany Network’s editorial standards.

During a September 30 interview, Mr. Dokoupil, who co-hosts “CBS Mornings,” suggested that the language about Israel in Mr. Coates’ newest book, “The Message”, was similar to literature that might be “in the backpack of an extremist.” Mr. Dokoupil also questioned why, in his criticism of Israel, Mr. Coates did not mention the Jewish state is surrounded by “countries that want to eliminate it” or the first or second intifada.

In “The Message”, Mr. Coates writes about a visit he made to Israel in harshly negative terms, including describing Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, as being in “Palestine.”

Internal complaints about Mr. Dokoupil’s interview percolated within CBS News and, one week after it was broadcast, on the first anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack, CBS News’ senior executives began their Monday morning editorial meetings by saying the interview did not meet CBS News’ hallowed editorial standards,  according to a recording of the meeting obtained by the Free Press.

The head of CBS News, Wendy McMahon, kicked off the meeting by acknowledging the anniversary of October 7 and turned it over to her chief deputy Adrienne Roark, who oversees news gathering. 

Ms. Roark, who appeared to be reading from a prepared statement, told employees that covering such anniversaries “requires empathy, respect, and a commitment to truth.” She then read from the CBS News handbook, which she noted has been around since the days of Walter Cronkite. 

“We will still ask tough questions. We will still hold people accountable. But we will do so objectively, which means checking our biases and opinions at the door,” Ms. Roark read. “There are times we fail our audiences and each other. We’re in one of those times, and it’s been growing. And we’re at a tipping point. Many of you have reached out to express concerns about recent reporting. Specifically about the ‘CBS Mornings’ Coates interview last week as well as comments made coming out of some of our correspondents’ reporting.”

Ms. Roark said that the interview did not meet CBS News’ editorial standards and apologized that “it’s taken this long to have this conversation.” She added the issue “goes way beyond one interview, one comment, one story. This is about preserving the legacy of neutrality and objectivity that is CBS News.”

After the nearly 10-minute introduction that criticized Mr. Dokoupil’s interview, the executives attempted to change the subject to discuss the day’s news. However, CBS News’ chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford was not so quick to move on. 

“It sounds like we are calling out one of our anchors in a somewhat public setting on this call for failing to meet editorial standards for, I’m not even sure what,” Ms. Crawford said. “I thought our commitment was to truth. And when someone comes on our air with a one-sided account of a very complex situation, as Coates himself acknowledges that he has, it’s my understanding that as journalists, we are obligated to challenge that worldview so that our viewers can have that access to the truth or a fuller account, a more balanced account. And, to me, that is what Tony did.”

The legal correspondent pointed out that Mr. Coates had a chance to respond to her colleague’s line of questioning and highlighted an article in the Washington Post that called the interview “impassioned but calm.”

“Tony prevented a one-sided account from being broadcast on our network that was completely devoid of history or facts. As someone who does a lot of interviews, I’m not sure now how to proceed in challenging viewpoints that are obviously one-sided and devoid of fact and history,” Ms. Crawford added. 

Ms. McMahon, a longtime local news executive who now oversees CBS News as well as its owned local stations, recently installed Ms Roark as her chief deputy. Like Ms. McMahon, Ms. Roark comes from an entirely local TV news background. Her remit is believed to be cutting costs and finding efficiencies by integrating CBS News’ expensive newsgathering apparatus with that of CBS’ local stations.  

Lacking experience managing a situation as complex as this one, Ms. McMahon and Ms. Roark appear to be relying on reading from CBS’s standards manual and leaning on their human resources team for by-the-book solutions.  On Monday afternoon, Puck reported that CBS News invited “mental health expert, DEI strategist, and trauma trainer” Dr. Donald Grant to attend an all-staff meeting on Tuesday and moderate a conversation about the interview. 

CBS News did not respond to a request for comment.