‘Cartoonishly Racist’: CBS Host Receives Backlash From Left Over ‘Shameful’ Interview With Ta-Nehisi Coates

CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil received criticism from left-leaning journalists after he aggressively interrogated author Ta-Nehisi Coates and suggested he was an extremist on Monday.

During a discussion with Coates about his new book, Dokoupil immediately went on the offensive and dominated the interview, giving his co-hosts little time to speak:

I have to say, when I read the book, I imagine if I took your name out of it, took away the awards and the acclaim, took the cover off the book, the publishing house goes away, the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist. So then I found myself wondering, why does Ta-Nehisi Coates – who I’ve know for a long time, read his work for a long time, very talented, smart guy – leave out so much? Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it? Why leave out that Israel deals with terror groups that want to eliminate it? Why not detail anything of the First and the Second Intifada, the cafe bombings, the bus bombings, the little kids blown to bits? And is it because you just don’t believe that Israel in any condition has a right to exist?

Coates replied, “Well I would say the perspective that you just outlined, there is no shortage of that perspective in American media. That’s the first thing I would say. I am most concerned always with those who don’t have a voice, with those who don’t have the ability to talk.”

He continued:

I have asked repeatedly in my interviews whether there is a single network, mainstream organization in America with a Palestinian-American bureau chief or correspondent who actually has a voice to articulate their part of the world. I’ve been a reporter for 20 years. The reporters of those who believe most sympathetically about Israel and it’s right to exist don’t have a problem getting their voice out. But what I saw in Palestine, what I saw in the West Bank, what I saw in Haifa in Israel, what I saw in the South Hebron Hills, those were the stories that I have not heard and those were the stories that I was most occupied with.

Dokoupil – whose children live in Israel – argued, “But if you were to read this book, you would be left wondering, ‘Why does any of Israel exist? What a horrific place committing horrific acts on a daily basis.’ So I think the question is central and key. If Israel has a right to exist, and if your answer is no, then I guess the question becomes why do the Palestinians have a right to exist? Why do 20 different Muslim countries have a right to exist?”

“You write a book that delegitimizes the pillars of Israel. It seems like an effort to topple the whole building of it,” he continued. “So I come back to the question, and it’s what I struggled with throughout this book, what is it that so particularly offends you about the existence of a Jewish state that is a Jewish safe place and not any of the other states out there?”

Coates shot back:

There’s nothing that offends me about a Jewish state. I am offended by the idea of states built on ethnocracy, no matter where they are. I would not want a state where any group of people lay down their citizenship rights based on ethnicity. The country of Israel is a state in which half the population exist on one tier of citizenship and everybody else that’s ruled by Israels exist on another tier, including Palestinian Israeli citizens. The only people that exist on that first tier are Israeli Jews. Why do we support that? Why is that okay? I’m the child of Jim Crow. I’m the child of people that were born into a country where that was exactly the case, of American apartheid.

After Coates recalled that his Palestinian guide in Israel was not able to “ride on certain roads,” or “get water in the same way that Israeli citizens” do, Dokoupil questioned, “Why is that? Why is there no agency in this book for the Palestinians? They exist in your narrative merely as victims of the Israelis, as though they were not offered peace at any juncture, as though they don’t have a stake in this as well.”

“Either apartheid is right or it’s wrong. It’s really, really simple. Either what I saw was right or it’s wrong,” concluded Coates. “I am against a state that discriminates against people on the base of ethnicity. I’m against that. There is nothing the Palestinians could do that would make that okay for me.”

Dokoupil received criticism from other journalists on social media, who accused the CBS host of being unprofessional and aggressive.

“You will never see a more insanely confrontational interview on a network morning show than this one. ivanka trump received a warmer reception on this same show,” reacted journalist John DiLillo , while Wajahat Ali described the interview as “shameful stuff all around.”

“The questions that one host asks are incredibly hostile, combative, and rude,” weighed in Vox correspondent Abdallah Fayyad . “They’re also cartoonishly racist, blaming Palestinians for their own oppression.”

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