An eventful first week in his job for CBS News' Tony Dokoupil, maybe not as intended

No one can say Tony Dokoupil is slipping into his new job as “CBS Evening News” anchor unnoticed.

In a week, he's issued a veritable manifesto for how he intends to fulfill the role, cast subtle shade on saintly predecessor Walter Cronkite, had an unexpected debut dominated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and posted a cringeworthy video of people mispronouncing his name.

If attention is currency in trying to revive a television institution fallen on hard times, Dokoupil has earned some. The jury is out on whether it is the kind he needs.

The 45-year-old Dokoupil, a “CBS Mornings” host since 2019, inherited the chair once occupied by Cronkite, Dan Rather, Katie Couric, Scott Pelley and Norah O'Donnell. He was supposed to have started Monday with a two-week tour around the country, but his first broadcast instead came Saturday after the U.S. military action in Venezuela.

An estimated 27 to 29 million people watched the “CBS Evening News” each night in Cronkite's last full year as anchor in 1980, the most popular of the three broadcast evening newscasts. The show is now entrenched at No. 3, And with news habits far different now, its nightly audience of 4.04 million people last year was a little more than half of what David Muir gets at ABC.

‘The press missed the story’

In video and printed messages posted last week, Dokoupil said he hoped to earn back the trust that many people have lost in legacy media institutions.

“On too many stories, the press missed the story,” he said. “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.”

He said his promise to viewers is that “you come first. Not advertisers. Not politicians. Not corporate interests. And, yes, that does include the corporate owners of CBS. I report for you.”

It wasn't clear exactly where he felt the analysis by “elites” led the country astray. Dokoupil broadcast from Miami on Tuesday, beginning his nationwide tour a day late, and wasn't available for comment, CBS said.

He also posted five “simple values” that the broadcast will follow. Four are fairly innocuous — “we work for you,” “we report on the world as it is,” “we respect you” and “we respect tradition, but we also believe in the future.”

The fifth might also seem simple: “We love America.” But it attracted plenty of online commentary, much from people suspicious that it reflected concern that Dokoupil's boss, Free Press founder and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, was intent upon moving the news division's focus more to the political right. The Daily Beast referred to Dokoupil as CBS' “MAGA-coded anchor.”

No apologies are necessary for loving America, wrote press critic Margaret Sullivan in her Substack column American Crisis — depending on how that's defined.

“Then again, I think we may have a different definition of how journalists can show their patriotism,” Sullivan said. “No American flag pins on lapels are necessary. No jingoistic headlines about illegal raids are welcome. And, please, no fawning interviews of people in powerful positions.”

Should news really be a daily conversation?

Half of Dokoupil's premiere broadcast over the weekend was devoted to his interview with Hegseth, who stayed through two commercial breaks. That kind of time spent speaking with one individual is itself unusual for a format designed to give a rundown on big stories, particularly on a busy day, and the anchor drew mixed reviews from critics who thought he could have pressed the defense secretary harder.

A Columbia University journalism professor, Bill Grueskin, doesn't like Dokoupil's statement that one way to think about his show is as a daily conversation about “where we are as a country and where we are going.”

Grueskin wrote on X: “News is not a ‘daily conversation.’ News is news. If you want a daily conversation, go to your local coffee shop.”

Dokoupil's statements seem to echo a message Weiss sent when she was appointed to her job last fall: “On the one hand, an America-loathing far left. On the other, a history-erasing far right. These extremes do not represent the majority of the country, but they have increasing power in our politics, our culture and our media ecosystem.”

Tim Graham, director of media analysis for the conservative Media Research Center, told The Associated Press he sees hopeful signs that Dokoupil will hold politicians from both parties accountable. His group has long contended CBS News is biased toward the left.

Sean Spicer, President Donald Trump's first White House press secretary, is more skeptical. He sees Dokoupil's rollout as part of a marketing campaign meant to make people forget the newsman spent the last several years sitting next to Gayle King on the morning show set.

“It's an attempt to gaslight people into thinking that he wasn't already a part of this institution,” said Spicer, who is debuting his own political news show, “The Huddle,” on streaming services this week.

Dokoupil's comment about Cronkite came when answering a viewer who wrote on Instagram that “I grew up on Cronkite. Too bad CBS has lost its Tiffany shine. But good luck to you anyway.”

The new anchor answered: “I can promise you that we'll be more accountable and more transparent than Cronkite or anyone else of that era.”

The remark angered fans of the newsman once cited in opinion polls as “the most trusted man in America.” “I knew Walter Cronkite. I was his producer,” said Tom Bettag, a University of Maryland journalism professor and longtime news executive who worked with Cronkite during his final two years as anchor. “Walter Cronkite would have never said something so self-serving.”

The second signal of Dokoupil's reference to Cronkite

Planned or not, Dokoupil had sent another signal. Cronkite was no hero to many conservatives with long memories who saw him as the preeminent symbol of a news establishment that leaned left.

One other promotional video, where CBS sent Dokoupil into New York's Grand Central Terminal holding up a sign with his name and asking people to pronounce it (it's do' COOP' pil), only provided evidence that strikingly few people knew CBS News' chief anchor. You can bet they would have recognized Cronkite on the highly unlikely chance he would have tried such a stunt.

From his long perspective in TV news, Bettag urged patience.

“I definitely think it's way too early to make a judgement on how he's going to be and I wish him all the luck in the world,” he said. “CBS needs him to succeed. It was a lousy start and some missed opportunities, but that should not be the final judgment.”

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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.