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The Tony–Ta-Nehisi Affair

Inside the totally predictable, somewhat absurd, and quasi-tragic fallout from Tony Dokoupil’s aggressive questioning of Ta-Nehisi Coates, the furious response inside CBS News, and the latest round of navel-gazing media existentialism.

Tony Dokoupil
The exchange tested the octaves of morning television, but it was also mostly quite civil and actually, in many moments, quite compelling: Two smart guys, actively disagreeing with one another, without resorting to screams or any sort of name-calling. Photo: Roy Rochlin/FilmMagic
Dylan Byers
October 9, 2024

On Monday, the anniversary of the October 7 attacks, Paramount Global chairwoman Shari Redstone was alerted to a fast-metastasizing, five-alarm shitshow at her company’s news division—and one that would turn out to be particularly personal for her. Earlier that morning, on a staff-wide call, CBS News C.E.O. Wendy McMahon and her deputy Adrienne Roark had stunned their teams by announcing that a recent CBS Mornings interview with the author Ta-Nehisi Coates had failed to meet the network’s editorial standards.