Gayle King on Controversial Ta-Nehisi Coates Interview: “Sometimes, You Have Hard Conversations on Television”

The CBS Mornings interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates has been a “learning” opportunity for the staff, according to anchor Gayle King.

Speaking at a panel at the Paley Center in Manhattan Tuesday night, King said that the anchors will not “shy away from hard conversations,” but know they have to be mindful of how they approach “hot-button issues.” King was on the panel with fellow CBS Mornings anchors Nate Burleson and Tony Dokoupil, as well as featured host Vladimir Duthiers and the show’s executive producer Shawna Thomas.

“Life is hard. The news is hard. Sometimes, you have hard conversations on television,” King said.

“We know that it comes with a great responsibility. And we’re mindful of that. Certain topics you know are just hot-button issues. You have to be very careful about how you ask the questions, how the questions are received. I think we don’t shy away from hard conversations either. So, I think it’s been a learning thing for everybody,” she continued.

The comments come a couple of weeks after the controversial interview with Coates, who came on the show to speak about his new book The Message, which argues, in one part, that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is immoral.

During the interview, Dokoupil asked some pointed questions to Coates about the book, including “Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it?” He also said, “I have to say, when I read the book, I imagine if I took your name out of it, took away the awards, the acclaim … the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.”

After the interview, CBS News executives told staff that the interview did not meet the network’s editorial standards. However, Shari Redstone, chair of Paramount Global, backed Dokoupil, saying he did a “great job” with the interview and said that CBS made “a mistake” in reprimanding Dokoupil and in saying it did not meet their standards. 

Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks then backed the decision from Wendy McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News, while also saying the company needs to have “substantive dialogue” about perceptions of bias and “inconsistent treatment.” 

Thomas added Tuesday that there have been many “hard” conversations, both internally and externally, about the interview and she expects those to continue.

“I think we’ve learned a lot from those,” Thomas said. “I’m hoping those conversations make us better journalists and better listeners.” 

McMahon was also in the audience for the panel Tuesday night. Throughout the panel, the co-hosts were chummy and repeatedly stated their respect for and friendship with each other. They did not speak about the Coates interview other than in the brief responses from Thomas and King in response to the question from moderator Lisa Ling, who is a contributor at CBS News.

In a podcast interview with Trevor Noah, Coates said he had been prepared for pushback on the book, given the topic, but that he felt Dokoupil’s behavior was not fair to his on-air colleagues, Gayle King and Nate Burleson. 

“The thing that went wrong in that interview, more than anything, as far as I’m concerned, is, and I know she’s getting a lot of stuff right now, so I really wanna say this. Gayle King is a great journalist and a great interviewer,” Coates said. “And Gayle came behind the stage before we went [on] and she had gone through the book, and I’m not saying she agreed with the book. She was like, ‘I’m gonna ask you about this. I’m gonna ask you about that.’”