CBS parent company CEO says network leadership made 'mistake' in response to Tony Dokoupil's interview

The head of CBS News' parent company said network leadership made a "mistake" in their response to "CBS Mornings" host Tony Dokoupil's tense interview with anti-Israel author Ta-Nehisi Coates that caused an internal uproar.

"I think Tony did a great job with that interview. I think he handled himself and showed the world and modeled what civil discourse is. He showed that there was accountability, that there is a system of checks and balances, and frankly, I was very proud of the work that he did," Paramount CEO Shari Redstone said Wednesday during a panel in New York, according to The Washington Post.

Dokoupil pressed Coates on his fiercely anti-Israel book "The Message" and said it read like something you would find in "the backpack of an extremist."

The interview prompted backlash from some CBS News staff, who felt Dokoupil pressed Coates too strongly. The network addressed the internal frenzy in a staff meeting Monday, which marked the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. CBS leadership reassured offended staff members that following a review, they concluded that the interview did not meet the company’s "editorial standards," the Free Press reported, which obtained audio of the staff meeting, and Dokoupil apologized. Even the network's Race and Culture unit got involved in reviewing the interview.

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During the interview, Dokoupil interrogated Coates for omitting numerous details in his book about Israel's extraordinary security situation, such as being surrounded by countries bent on its destruction and the First and Second Palestinian Intifadas that resulted in scores of terrorist attacks. Coates