‘CBS Evening News’ Tony Dokoupil Slammed After Mixing Up Kanye West & Diddy
What To Know
- Tony Dokoupil and CBS News were criticized for showing footage of Kanye West during a report about Sean “Diddy” Combs.
- The network corrected the error for later broadcasts and digital platforms.
- CBS News also faced criticism over the handling of weather-related disruptions during coverage of the Great American State Fair.
Tony Dokoupil and the CBS News team have been slammed for mixing up Kanye West and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
According to the New York Post, the embarrassing on-air gaffe occurred during Friday’s (July 3) East Coast broadcast of CBS Evening News as Dokoupil reported that President Donald Trump was considering a pardon for Combs, who was found guilty on two counts of transportation for prostitution. The report included a video of West, who had attended Combs’ trial last year.
The outlet reports that CBS News fixed the mistake for its West Coast broadcast and on its CBS digital platforms, but not before the Post grabbed a screenshot of the error, which you can see here.
A source told the publication that the “disastrous” mistake was an example of how short-staffed the show is. “They are drinking from a fire hose,” the source said. “This sort of thing should not happen. Where is the quality control?”
However, a network insider refuted those claims, saying it was a “one-off error” that had “nothing to do with short staffing.”
The errors didn’t stop there, though, as the network also hit a snag during its coverage of Trump’s Great American State Fair celebrations after the president issued an evacuation order for the National Mall due to incoming thunderstorms.
Dokoupil and his co-host, Nischelle Turner, were “holed up nearby as the storm swept through,” the Post reported, with them waiting for almost an hour for CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and network President Tom Cibrowski to decide what to do.
The source called it “amateur hour,” adding, “Tony and Nischelle waited one hour in the rain for Bari or Tom to tell them to go to the studio.”
Another network source claimed that Dokoupil and Turner weren’t waiting for a directive from higher-ups but “simply waiting in the case that Secret Service would let them return to the Mall.”
A CBS News spokesperson also dismissed the idea that the broadcast was a disaster, stating, “This is nonsense. Despite the weather evacuation, our exceptional team never missed a step. We seamlessly activated our pre-planned weather contingencies to deliver great coverage for our audience.”
CBS Evening News, Weeknights, 6:30/5:30c, CBS
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P
Months before he was appointed evening anchor I began to wonder about comments Tony D was making on the morning program. They were out of character, odd and even off topic or out of context . It became apparent he was auditioning for Weiss. What a shame - people are going to turn from CBS in droves and he will be a ready scapegoat. He will be unemployed and his reputation deservedly tanked forever.
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N
Watching the Dokoupil CBS Evening News for meaningful, substantive journalism is frustrating and disappointing. Once a pillar of American broadcast news, CBS News with Dokoupil has become an irrelevant program on a rapidly declining network. It's a genuine loss for American journalism.
Not a single person I know — from college students to young adults to prime-age professionals — watches CBS News or takes the King-lead (?) CBS Mornings seriously anymore. That demographic collapse alone should be alarming to every executive in that building.
What makes this particularly infuriating is that CBS leadership is not even attempting reinvention. This is not creative destruction with a vision for something bold and new on the other side. It's destruction purely for destruction's sake — a Bari Weiss-style scorched earth strategy of burning it all down and walking away from the wreckage. CBS News and American journalism deserves better.
And so does the American public.
Get rid of Dokoupil and Gail King, each, a collsousal waste of our time, and a lost battle for all CBS stockholders money.
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B
We watched ABC for awhile but 1st the anchor tells you what stories they have that day, then before each story he pretty much tells you what the reporter will say. Haven’t watched NBC but think I’ll try it. I kinda like CBS news as long as they don’t say anything positive about Trump.
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N
A handsome face does not substitute for quality journalism.
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N
Sad for Dokoupil, he was great on CBS morning,but the evening newscast is a shyte show and unfortunately he will take the fall.
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S
OMG give Tony a chance I think he's doing a great job. Everyone gave David and Tom a chance. Tony is telling a lot of stories in a lot more detail than David and Tom. My goodness I don't know where your getting your information from a lot of people I've talked to thinks Tony is doing a Great Job
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