Exclusive | CBS’s Tony Dokoupil offers ‘regrets’ at tearful staff meeting after anti-Israel author spat

CBS Mornings co-anchor Tony Dokoupil told staff during an emotional meeting that he was “sorry” for putting them in a difficult position amid the network’s widespread scandal over his feud with an anti-Israel author. learned The Post.

The embattled anchor spoke at Tuesday’s only staff meeting — which co-hosts Gayle King and Nate Burleson did not attend — a day after he was reprimanded by CBS for his fiery sit-down with Ta-Nehsi Coates, a source said. source of knowledge. .

“Tony said he was sorry for putting his colleagues in that position, especially those overseas and at risk,” the insider told The Post.

“There were tears. [People were] very upset,” the source continued, adding that staffers are “divided” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and were “disturbed” by the way Dokoupil challenged Coates last week.

Dokoupil, however, did not back down from his pointed questioning of Coates about his new book during the 11:30 a.m. meeting, which was moderated by “CBS Mornings” executive producer Shawna Thomas, sources said.

A second source said some black employees who attended the meeting were critical that Burleson and King have remained tight-lipped about the issue.

Dokoupil held a private meeting Monday with his co-hosts in his office at 1515 Broadway, the second source said. Details of the 30-minute pow-wow could not be immediately learned.

Dokoupil did not return requests for comment.

CBS News declined to comment.

In the days leading up to Tuesday’s meeting, the source said, CBS Mornings employees complained to top network executives about the reporter’s treatment of Coates, who was promoting his latest book, “The Message.”

The novel condemns what he called Israeli “apartheid” in the administration of the territories occupied in the 1967 Six Day War.

Dokoupil, a convert to Judaism whose ex-wife lives in Israel with their two children, took issue with Coates, saying the book “wouldn’t be out of place in an extremist’s backpack” for because of the characterization of Israel.

During a staff meeting Monday — on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack that killed 1,400 in Israel — CBS News chief Wendy McMahon and president of content development Adrienne Roark called out Dokoupil for “biased” behavior. of him in the interview, adding that it did not meet the network’s editorial standards, according to reports from Bari Weiss’ Puck News and Free Press.

On Tuesday, Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of CBS parent Paramount Global, was furious with the way executives handled the situation, saying it was insensitive to address the issue on Oct. 7, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Free Press posted leaked audio of Monday’s meeting, which also included criticism from CBS News chief legal officer Jan Crawford, who blasted the executives’ statement in front of staff.

“It seems like we’re calling out one of our anchors in a somewhat public setting on this call for failing to meet editorial standards, I’m not even sure what,” she said.

“I thought our commitment was to the truth. And when someone comes on our broadcast with a one-sided account of a very complex situation, as Coates himself admits he has, I understand that as journalists we have an obligation to challenge that worldview so that our viewers have that access to the truth or a more complete account, a more balanced account. And, to me, that’s what Tony did.”

Puck News reported late Monday that to address the uproar within “CBS Mornings,” the network was planning to tap DEI consultant Dr. Donald Grant to lead Tuesday’s staff discussion.

But Grant’s own controversial views were uncovered by The Post, including a social media post by the self-proclaimed “mental health expert” of an altered cover of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s classic slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin — by featured Donald’s face South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who supports Trump, photoshopped the images of several other characters.

The post on Grant’s Instagram account, which he set up earlier this year, changed the caption to “Uncle Tim’s Cabin” and also included an image of conservative commentator Candace Owens.

At the time, CBS News declined to comment on Puck’s report and Grant’s Instagram. On Tuesday, Puck reported that the decision to bring in Grant had grown amid uproar, which drew outrage from critics, as well as a fundraising effort by Scott using Grant’s Photoshopped book cover.

“The disgusting rhetoric above is exactly what awaits us if we allow the Radical and Intolerant Left to win,” Scott wrote on the Win Red fundraising platform.