Tony Dokoupil has had a busy first day as host of CBS Evening News, after the network brought his start date forward two days in response to the U.S. military action in Venezuela.
“Good evening, great to be with you tonight, two days earlier than expected with that major breaking news – news that could shape the year, maybe even the century,” Dokoupil said at the top of the show.
The veteran reporter, who previously worked at NBC and MSNBC, was scheduled to take the helm of the show on Monday, though a CBS News source tipped off The Independent that he would instead be presenting for the first time on Saturday.
It comes after Donald Trump ordered heavy airstrikes in Venezuela, which resulted in the seizure of oil operations in the South American nation and the capture of its president, Nicolas Maduro.
Dokoupil previously vowed that his tenure would be independent from the CBS corporate owner, Paramount Skydance, pledging transparency and integrity to his viewers 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.
In a separate statement on Friday, CBS News said, “We love America. And we make no apologies for saying so,” a stance that appears at odds with accusations leveled at the administration about unnecessary foreign overreach.
After capturing Maduro, Trump declared Saturday that an interim “group” with top administration officials will “run” Venezuela for “a period of time” until the United States determines a “peaceful and just transition” can take place.
In his statement, Dokoupil said his coverage would not be influenced by politicians or other corporate entities.
“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,” he said.
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 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.”
