• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 9 hours ago

Once again, a new anchorman has been appointed to a network newscast, and the announcement conjures memories of so many such announcements that have come before it.

We have seen it all before. A new network news boss comes in and in a few weeks, she (or he) is jettisoning the anchor (or anchors) of the network’s nightly newscast and replacing them with someone else.

The latest is the announcement on Wednesday that Tony Dokoupil (Doh -KO-pill), 44, has been named the next anchor of “CBS Evening News,” starting January 5. He is leaving “CBS Mornings,” where he has been a co-anchor for six years.

According to a CBS News press release, Tony Dokoupil is the cat’s meow. He is described as “an Emmy Award-winning journalist known for his fairness, curiosity and doggedness,” the press release says.

“We live in a time in which many people have lost trust in the media,” says the new editor-in-chief at CBS News, Bari Weiss, in a prepared statement. Ya think?

“Tony Dokoupil is the person to win it back,” she asserts with great confidence. “That’s because he believes in old school journalistic values: asking the hard questions, following the facts wherever they lead and holding power to account.” 

This description could apply to a thousand journalists on any given day. And what exactly are “old school journalistic values,” anyway? 

People bat around phrases like this one all time, but few ever actually venture to define what these “values” are, or how they are to be applied in an era when the way we consume and react to news bears little resemblance to journalism’s “old school.”

“Americans hungry for fairness will see that on display night after night,” Weiss concludes finally.

Americans hungry for fairness? May the two of them please come forward and identify themselves. 

Perhaps some Americans are “hungry for fairness,” but it is doubtful they exist in numbers sufficient to support the editor-in-chief’s aim of kickstarting an “ambitious new era for America’s longest-running nightly newscast” or reestablishing “trust” in news media.

The press release goes on to praise Dokoupil for his authenticity, compassion and fearlessness.

He is so charismatic and compassionate that “he connects instantly, whether he’s talking with world leaders or with families navigating difficult news in their own backyards,” says a prepared statement from CBS News President Tom Cibrowski.

In short, Tony Dokoupil is quite a guy. According to the press release, he is fair, curious, dogged, authentic, compassionate and unafraid. He not only connects with people, but he does so “instantly.”

For a press release from an “old school” news organization, this press release reads like it was written by P. T. Barnum. 

Bari Weiss is the new firebrand editor-in-chief who was hired by Paramount boss David Ellison to run CBS News.

She has famously vowed to “blow things up” at CBS, but elevating an insider of the “old school” does not seem like blowing things up at all. Instead, it is the opposite of blowing things up.

The first order of business for Dokoupil when he starts his new job will be a month of travel. “In his first month, Dokoupil will get out from behind his desk and meet you [not me, but members of the general public] in cities and towns across America,” the press release promises.

“His cross-country tour builds on two decades of journalism spanning the globe and on the instinct that has defined his coverage: to go where the story is,” it says.

The fact that he has to undertake this trip in the dead of winter earns the TV Blog’s heartfelt sympathy. 

You may ask, what was the catalyst for this cynical column about the naming of Tony Dokoupil as the new anchorman of “CBS Evening News”?

Well, I came across another cynical column on the same subject I wrote in May 2019 in the wake of a “shakeup” at CBS News in which, among other things, then-“Evening News” anchor Jeff Glor was yanked from the show and replaced with Norah O’Donnell.

At the same time, Tony Dokoupil was assigned to the morning show as co-anchor with Gayle King and Anthony Mason.

In the press release that day, O’Donnell was described as “award-winning,” “highly respected” and “distinguished.” She lasted five years, during time which the ratings needle barely moved.

She was replaced at the beginning of this year by the anchor team of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois who lasted less than a year, although they too were likely “highly respected” when they started.

And here we are at the beginning of a new era at “CBS Evening News” -- again. 

Photo credit: CBS News. Tony Dokoupil on “CBS Mornings.”