Bari Weiss’ New CBS Anchor Says People Mad About ICE Murders Need to Be ‘Decent’ to ICE Supporters
Barf Bag: Two days after verbally fellating Marco Rubio, Tony Dokoupil said the real problem is that Americans don't listen to each other.
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It’s somehow only been three months since Trump-supporting billionaire David Ellison named the reactionary centrist Bari Weiss as editor in chief of CBS News, and she is making quick work of destroying the network’s credibility.
Most people have heard about Weiss’s last-minute intervention to hold a 60 Minutes segment that interviewed people whom the Trump administration deported to a prison in El Salvador known as CECOT without so much as a court hearing. Weiss claimed the piece needed more reporting, including an on-the-record comment from the White House, but it aired in Canada, and people archived it and posted it to YouTube. Weiss is currently reportedly slow-walking another 60 Minutes story, this one about Donald Trump‘s decision to accept white refugees from South Africa.
But today we are here to talk about Tony Dokoupil, Weiss’ hand-picked anchor for CBS Evening News, who just finished his first week in the chair. Dokoupil, of course, is the same CBS employee who told author Ta-Nehisi Coates in a 2024 interview that parts of his most recent book describing Israel‘s occupation of Palestine were “extremist.” Dokoupil converted to Judaism in 2002, and his ex-wife lives in Israel, while Weiss is known for an unrelenting pro-Israel stance at her opinion website, The Free Press. (As an aside, Weiss reportedly pursued Fox News‘ Bret Baier or Dana Perino for the CBS role, but didn’t realize they have long-term contracts, because she has no idea how TV news works.)
Dokoupil had to navigate many pieces of breaking news this week, including the U.S. kidnapping the president of Venezuela, as well as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shooting and killing Renee Nicole Good on Wednesday in Minneapolis, Minnesota. An ICE-related killing that’s received less attention is an off-duty agent who shot and killed a 43-year-old Black father on New Year’s Eve, after his family said he fired celebratory gunshots outside his apartment building.
As the Trump administration tries to lie about the circumstances under which Good was killed, Dokoupil proclaimed from Minneapolis on Thursday that, while people being murdered is bad, those upset about it need to understand the perspective of people who support mass deportations. I’m not exaggerating. This both-sides, bootlicking garbage came two days after Dokoupil verbally fellated Secretary of State Marco Rubio, saying “whatever you think of his politics, you have to admit, it’s an impressive resume.”
Here’s a clip of the gross moment:
Tony Dokoupil closed last night's CBS Evening "News" with a passionate bothsidesing of Renee Good's killing: "I've heard too, not on the streets protesting, but in passionate notes in my inbox from people who want to see our immigration laws enforced."
Let me pull out a little more from his sign-off (a rough transcript of which is here):
I spoke to people today who haven’t slept since it happened, who want ICE out now, who don’t like masked men on their street, don’t want their neighbors arrested, don’t want families ripped apart. I’ve heard, too—not on the streets protesting but in passionate notes in my inbox—from people who want to see our immigration laws enforced, legally and peacefully and with safety for all, including the officers who, in many cases, are also parents themselves. These are both deeply American sentiments.
But our job now is maybe the most American thing of all: It’s to find a way to live with people who are genuinely different from us. To try to be fair to them, and in doing so, to make things better, and keep things decent. Because in America, no one else is going to do it for us. It’s not my job to tell you what to think about what happened here yesterday, but I can tell you we owe our children a nation that is better than the one we live in today.
Oh, you’ve gotten emails from racists who want every non-white person deported??? How revelatory. The administration cannot do mass deportations safely because the numbers they’re trying to hit necessitate low standards and shoddy training for agents who will arrest anyone they can, including lawful residents.
Dokoupil may say it’s not his job to tell people what to think, but imploring viewers to calm down after the secret police murdered someone is effectively siding with the people running the secret police.
I guess this is what Weiss meant when she said she was looking forward to “do[ing] the fucking news.”
Related: Texas Rep. Roger Williams would like people to stop protesting ICE altogether and to get “civil.”
Rep. Roger Williams: "People need to quit demonstrating, quit yelling at law enforcement, challenging law enforcement, and begin to get civil."
More barf:
- President Trump said he’d ask Congress to increase the defense budget by 50%, up to a staggering $1.5 trillion. Nothing worrying about that! [Politico]
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is officially trying to cut veteran and Sen. Mark Kelly‘s retirement pay after Kelly previously recorded a video reminding military members that they don’t have to follow illegal orders. [NPR]
- A new study found that the Supreme Court increasingly favors the rich: “Republican appointees voted for the wealthier side in cases 70 percent of the time in 2022, up from 45 percent in 1953.” [New York Times]
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called for an April special session to redraw the state’s congressional districts to help daddy Trump. [CNN]
- Anonymous sources claim Trump didn’t install Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado as the new leader because she deigned to accept her Nobel Peace Prize: “If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today.” [Washington Post]
- From a story on young men souring on Trump: “[Vice President] J.D. Vance has a lower favorability rating (33 percent) among young men than Andrew Tate (35 percent).” [Puck]
This has been your Friday Barf Bag, thanks for reading!
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