CBS News’ Tony Dokoupil Mocked by Wife Katy Tur’s Ex Keith Olbermann

Former MSNBC (now MS NOW) anchor Keith Olbermann didn’t hold back his thoughts on Tony Dokoupil over the weekend, referring to the new CBS Evening News host as “the new CBS chief propagandist.”

Dokoupil, whose first broadcast as CBS Evening News anchor was supposed to come on Monday (January 5) but instead debuted Saturday (January 3), received backlash after he failed to question Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the use of U.S. troops to occupy Venezuela.

Resharing a tweet from journalist Phil Williams, who called out Dokoupil for his Hegseth interview, Olbermann wrote, “The fear on the new CBS chief propagandist @tonydokoupil is unmistakable. Say the wrong thing and Bari Weiss will replace him with…Bari Weiss, probably.”

Dokoupil’s move from CBS Mornings to CBS Evening News came after several shake-ups at CBS News, including the hiring of The Free Press co-founder Weiss as editor-in-chief in October. Some critics have accused the network and Weiss of cozying up to President Trump, including backlash to a pulled 60 Minutes segment about deportations under the Trump administration.

The fear on the new CBS chief propagandist @tonydokoupil is unmistakable. Say the wrong thing and Bari Weiss will replace him with…Bari Weiss, probably pic.twitter.com/KJcjjeunSq

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) January 4, 2026

On New Year’s Day, CBS News shared a video statement from Dokoupil, who urged viewers to hold him to account as he begins his new role as CBS Evening News anchor. In his statement, he promised to prioritize the average American over advertisers, politicians, and corporate interests, including his CBS bosses.

He also said legacy media has often “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.”

Dokoupil’s statement drew backlash from some, including Bravo’s Andy Cohen and former CBS News correspondent Don Dahler, the latter of whom suggested it was written by Weiss.

As for Olbermann, he previously dated MS NOW correspondent and Dokoupil’s current wife, Katy Tur, from 2006 to 2009. While the pair remained friends until 2016, their relationship eventually broke down, with Olbermann ranting against Tur on his podcast, Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

In a December 2022 episode of his podcast, Olbermann blasted Tur for turning Dokoupil’s vasectomy “into a photo op” and referred to the couple as “horrible publicity addicts.”

He also claimed to have written and edited many of Tur’s news reports, advised her on her career choices, paid off her student debts, and paid for her rent in New York for a year. Olbermann also alleged that Tur “started punching and slapping me with intent to do real harm because the living room in our place wasn’t clean enough.”

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Olbermann was 47 when he started dating Tur in 2006. She was 23.

Last year, New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi’s ex-fiance, Ryan Lizza, referred to Olbermann as a sugar daddy, claiming the former sportscaster bought Nuzzi expensive gifts and paid her college tuition while they were dating over a decade ago, when she was 21, and he was 55.

Tur and Dokoupil tied the knot on October 27, 2017, and went on to have two children, a son, Theodore, born in 2019, and a daughter, Eloise, born in 2021. Tur is also stepmom to two of Dokoupil’s kids from a previous relationship.