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Shari Redstone stood firmly behind CBS anchor Tony Dokoupil for a recent interview that his own network executives said did not meet editorial standards.
“I frankly think Tony did a great job with that interview. I think he handled himself and showed the world a role model of what civil discourse is. He showed that there was accountability, that there is a system of checks and balances, and frankly, I was very proud of the work that he did,” Redstone said at appearance at New York Advertising Week. She said had conveyed her thoughts to Dokoupil.
As Paramount Global heads into a new era with Skydance, Redstone is focusing more on issues around anti-semitism. She sat for a Q&A with Matthew Segal, co-founder and co-CEO of ATTN, a social storytelling media company and content studio, to discuss the role engaging content and civics education can have in driving multi-cultural awareness.
Dokoupil took up a bit chunk of the session after top CBS News executives told staffers on a call Monday morning that a contentious interview exchange between the CBS Mornings co-anchor and the author over Coates’ book that delves into the Israel-Palestinian conflict did not meet the network’s editorial standards.
“A hard as it was, frankly, for me to go against the company, because I love this company, and I believe in it, and I think we have a great, great executive team, I think they made a mistake here,” Redstone said.
“And I just want to be clear that I’ve been working with the CEOs. I’ve been working with the woman who does a lot of our diversity training, and I think we all agree that this was not handled correctly, and we all agree that something needs to be done. I don’t have editorial control. I am not an executive, but I have a voice in our platform, like all of us, and as you may know, I don’t hesitate to use it.”
Asked how it should haev been handled, she said:
“Well, I don’t know all of the specifics, so it’s really hard to say exactly what they did. I kind of know, not a lot more than what you guys do. But what I do need to say is one, we need to have better education for people. People need to understand the core issues and what they’re talking about. We need to have better education about how to challenge people in a civil way, which, frankly, I think Tony did. And we need to have, most important, standards that are applied to everyone on all issues. You can’t have one standard for somebody who has one position and another standard for somebody has another position. And I think the most important thing that can come out of this is that we all recognize that we need to provide a platform where people can have a voice, where they can have civil discourse, where they can challenge each other, and we need to make sure that we give equal opportunity for this, regardless of what side of the issue you’re on.”
“And by the way, I’m very glad that we had [Coates] on our show. I’m very glad that we gave him an opportunity to speak. But we have to also provide the opportunity to challenge him on what he says, just, frankly, challenge everybody, whether they’re politicians, friends or in any arena that we deal with … We can all do a better job, and that’s what we all have to strive to do.”
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