Ta-Nehisi Coates Says Tony Dokoupil Commandeered CBS Interview: “I Don’t Think He Did Nate and Gayle a Service”

Ta-Nehisi Coates offered more thoughts on his much-talked about CBS Mornings interview in a trailer for the next episode of the What Now? with Trevor Noah podcast, suggesting that host Tony Dokoupil “commandeering” the interview didn’t serve his colleagues Gayle King and Nate Burleson well.

In a three-minute trailer for the next episode, Coates is asked about the CBS interview last week that covered his new book The Message. Noah begins by relaying to Coates his own anger at the tone and line of questioning Dokoupil aimed at the author over his writings about the Israel-Palestine issue. “I very seldom get angry on people’s behalf, but man, we haven’t been able to stop talking about the CBS interview,” Noah said. “I don’t think you understand the shockwave that interview created, not because of what you said, but because of the way people felt like you were treated.”

Noah zeroed in on one particular moment from the CBS interview, when Dokoupil said to Coates: “When I read the book, I imagine if I took your name out of it. Took away the awards and the acclaim. Took the cover off the book, the publishing house goes away. The content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.”

“Yo!” Noah said of Dokoupil’s comments. “I don’t get flabbergasted by much, I genuinely don’t. I sat there, and I was like, what?”

“I’ve been trying to process why I wasn’t so insulted,” Coates replied. “I love all of those awards and accolades, but they’re not really me. So, okay. You take ’em away, it’s fine. You know what I mean? I’m still, me.”

Coates added that he was prepared for the criticism he would face for The Message. “I have been in this, in terms of the research and the writing, you know, over a year now, and I guess how much, the extent to which Palestinians have been pushed out of the frame… I knew this was coming.”

He added, “I figured at some point it was gonna be a fight. You know, I didn’t know it was gonna be right then, but I figured at some point it was gonna be a fight.”

Coates felt that Dokoupil “commandeering” the interview probably helped him as he was prepared but didn’t serve Dokoupil’s colleagues King and Burleson well. “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. 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.”

“It was [King’s] handwritten notes,” Coates said indicating that King was thoroughly prepared although ultimately didn’t get to ask any questions. “While on the one hand, [Dokoupil] probably did me a service… by just kind of commandeering that interview, I don’t think he did Nate and Gail a service,
and I’m really, really sorry for them.”

Also in the What Now? clip, Noah asks Coates, “why do they remove all context when speaking about Israel Palestine?” Adding, “Like why do they, why do they say if we take this away and if we take that away and if we take that away and if we take that away and if we take that, then it’s this, but we don’t do that with many other issues.”

“To your point, removing the context, I think, is actually essential,” Coates replies. “Because if you start asking why… then you really start to get into trouble.”

The full Ta-Nehisi Coates episode of What Now? with Trevor Noah drops on Oct. 10.

On Monday, in an editorial meeting, CBS News executives Wendy McMahon and Adrienne Roark deemed the contentious Coates interview on CBS Mornings as not meeting the network’s editorial standards.