Tony Dokoupil’s viral first week should worry Bari Weiss

As Tony Dokoupil himself put it on his chaotic first official day anchoring the “CBS Evening News,” “First day, big problems here.” He was supposed to start his new gig as anchor on Monday, but his debut, in a kind of preview appearance, was moved forward to Saturday, Jan. 3 following the breaking news of Donald Trump’s invasion of Venezuela. Hand-picked by CBS News editorial director Bari Weiss, herself plucked for the position by parent company SkyDance Paramount CEO David Ellison, who has ties to Trump, Dokoupil’s first week as anchor was hyped as a coronation of sorts. Instead, his carefully stage-managed rollout — a 10-day private jet tour to promote a new ideological era at CBS News — was derailed by reality in Trump’s America. When the U.S. government abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, suddenly Dokoupil’s “reinvention” of the evening news had to contend with actual breaking news.

In his first week on the job, and in the bizarre publicity blitz that preceded it, Dokoupil has attempted to position himself as something more than an anchor. He seems to be, at least in his own mind, the main character of the news. Take the grandiosity of his ascent to the role, in which CBS News put forward a manifesto of the newsroom’s guiding principles. On too many stories, Dokoupil claimed in a promotional video, the press has missed the story because “we’ve taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.” His bizarre claim that the new broadcast would be “more transparent than Cronkite” was startling, but it became more revealing as the week wore on.

Legendary “CBS Evening News” anchor Walter Cronkite was famous for telling viewers what was happening, why it mattered and who was responsible. When he spoke from conviction — most famously about Vietnam — it was grounded in fact-based reporting, not sentimentality. Dokoupil’s approach has been to become the news, and this week, the disconnection between his populist rhetoric and actual reporting was stark.

Dokoupil’s accelerated debut featured a lengthy interview with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that allowed the former Fox News host to define the U.S. military operation in Venezuela as a “law enforcement” action, argue Congress need not be notified and openly discuss American oil interests, all without confronting the administration’s crackdown on the press itself. 

In recent months, Hegesth has sharply restricted access for credentialed Pentagon reporters, effectively punishing journalists who refused to sign a new policy barring them from seeking or publishing unapproved information, including unclassified information. Veteran reporters from reputable outlets were pushed out of the building and replaced by right-wing media creators, such as conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who seemingly agreed to not scrutinize U.S. military power. Any interview conducted under those conditions carries an obligation to address the attack on the press itself. Ignoring the administration’s crackdown on journalists while amplifying its talking points is not neutrality.

After he attempted a humorous “salute” to the many roles Secretary of State Marco Rubio plays in the Trump administration, declaring, “Whatever you think of his politics, you’ve got to admit, it’s an impressive résumé,” it was troublingly clear that Dokoupil is now the face of a CBS News more interested in maintaining access to power than in holding it accountable. This confusion between journalism and affirmation ran through the anchor’s entire first week. Ultimately, that should worry Weiss, because it’s the clearest possible illustration that her vision for the news division is fundamentally incompatible with actual journalism.

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Consider what happened on Tuesday night, Dokoupil’s third evening on the job. The five-year anniversary of Jan. 6 received fifteen seconds of coverage, buried 25 minutes into the 30-minute show. There was no video footage from the insurrection. There were no images from Tuesday’s congressional hearing marking the somber anniversary or clips of the compelling testimony. Just pardoned defendants marching through D.C., framed through a he-said-he-said between Trump and House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. Yet CBS somehow did better than NBC, where “Evening News” anchor Tom Llamas made no mention of the Capitol insurrection or the White House’s egregious attempt at historical revisionism.

After taking a helicopter ride with billionaire, Trump donor and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to admire Dallas from above — an odd choice for a man who railed against media elitism and promised to prioritize “the average American” — Dokoupil was forced back to breaking news, reporting from Minneapolis in the aftermath of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed 37-year-old mother Renée Nicole Good. The anchor offered a garbled 90-second monologue that credited and blamed both sides — if it said anything at all. 

Dokoupil acknowledged both opposition to ICE and “people who want to see our immigration laws enforced, legally and peacefully and with safety for all.” Calling both pro- and anti-ICE beliefs “deeply American sentiments,” he asked viewers to “find a way to live with people who are genuinely different from us” and to “make things better and keep things decent.” The emptiness of such platitudes in this moment leaves much to be desired.

The ratings bear out the public’s skepticism. Dokoupil’s official Monday night debut pulled in 4.463 million total viewers and 609,000 in the key 25-54 demographic. While that is slightly higher than the newscast’s recent average, it is also down 22% overall and 24% in the demographic as compared to last year on the same day. 

In a week that began with the U.S. overthrow of a foreign head of state and continued with raging tension over the presence of masked and armed immigration forces in American cities, Dokoupil made himself the story. While it’s an unappealing display of vanity and a misunderstanding of what news is and does, it’s also serving to keep his name in headlines. For him and for CBS News’ new leadership, perhaps that’s enough.