CBS News’ editor-in-chief Bari Weiss reportedly made last-minute edits to anchor Tony Dokoupil’s script just before his blunder-ridden, on-air debut.
Dokoupil delivered his first “Evening News” broadcast on January 5, having been tapped by Weiss for the anchor position shortly after she took charge of the network in October. The segment quickly went awry due to a teleprompter malfunction, leading Dokoupil to appear visibly confused about which news item was being addressed.
“All right, to other news. As you just heard from Jill, well, to other news now. Uh, to Governor Walz. No, we’re gonna do Mark Kelly,” he said. Dokoupil then griped to viewers: “First day, first day, big problems here.”
The New York Times reported that the gaffe was caused, in part, by Weiss and her staffers, who had been rewriting the script just moments before the 6:30 p.m. show aired.
Weiss, the “anti-woke” founder of the online news site The Free Press, has sought to reinvent the “Evening News” in order to address what she sees as institutional bias and boost flagging viewership.
“Let’s make sure every single night has something with viral potential,” she told producers as they prepared for Dokoupil’s debut, which began with a 14-day tour of the nation, according to the Times.
“The goal for this road show is not to deliver the news so much as it is to *drive the news*…We need to *be the news* for these 10 days.”
The network has indeed gone viral in recent weeks but largely for negative reasons.
Under Weiss’ leadership, CBS News has faced intense scrutiny, with some critics accusing the revamped outfit of showing clear favoritism to the Trump administration.
In December, Weiss made the controversial, last-minute decision to pull a “60 Minutes” story about Trump’s mass deportations, which was met with opposition from network employees.
“Holy f***ing dumpster fire,” one staffer told The Independent at the time, while another reporter said that Weiss likely “crossed the Rubicon” when she spiked the story.
Weiss defended her decision, telling the Times that “holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason—that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices—happens every day in every newsroom.”
On January 6, Dokoupil went viral for his glowing segment on Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during which he signed off by stating: “Marco Rubio, we salute you. You’re the ultimate Florida man.”
The segment was intended to be lighthearted, a source familiar with the matter told the Times. But the anchor’s comments were attacked on social media, with critics calling them inappropriate and biased.
CBS News again received unwanted attention during the Golden Globes this past weekend, which was aired by the network. Comedian Nikki Glaser, who hosted the awards show, said on stage that CBS News was “America’s newest place to see B.S. news.”
A spokesperson for CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
