Tony Dokoupil promises the new CBS Evening News will be independent from its corporate owner: ‘you come first’
Tony Dokoupil has promised that his upcoming tenure at CBS Evening News will be independent from the program’s corporate owner, pledging transparency and integrity to his viewers in order to earn back public trust in the media.
“As long as I sit in this chair: you come first. Not advertisers. Not politicians. Not corporate interests. And, yes, that does include the corporate owners of CBS. I report for you,” Dokoupil said in a video message Thursday.
The veteran reporter, who previously worked at NBC and MSNBC, will officially take the helm of the show next Monday, January 5. He follows in the footsteps of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, who both recently announced their departures after less than a year in the role.
“A lot has changed since the first person sat in the Evening News chair. For me, the biggest difference is this: people don’t trust us like they used to. And it’s not just us. It’s all legacy media,” Dokoupil said.
“On too many stories the press 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 appointment as CBS Evening News anchor was confirmed last month as part of a swath of network changes under new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
Weiss has already faced controversy and criticism from within her own staff. Last week Weiss reportedly pulled a segment from 60 Minutes which focused on the Trump administration’s deportation of migrants to a brutal maximum security prison in El Salvador.
Sharyn Alfonsi, the correspondent behind the piece, described the decision to spike the segment as “political.”
In his message, Dokoupil pledged to block any corporate intrusion in his reporting.
“I became a journalist to talk to people. I love talking to people about what works in this country, what doesn’t, and not only what should change, but the good ideas that never should,” he said. “I think telling the truth is one of them. Hold me to it.”
His optimism was not shared by all, including former Fox News and NBC host Megyn Kelly, who declared on X: “Nothing will happen at CBS. Nothing.
“Legacy media is dead and evening news has been totally irrelevant for a long time. CBS has not had evening viewers in any competitive way in more than a decade. It’s not reversible,” Kelly wrote.
